Arrival

by William Dickey

  I seemed to fight everywhere. One moment I was at one of the staircases. Half a dozen beastmen were trying to force their way up.

  ‘Quick, stop them while you still have the high ground,’ said Mai.

  Thrust. Thrust. Parry. Thrust. I used the length of my spear to take down two of the beastmen while hiding behind a row of human defenders. The other knights were eventually able to finish off this group but not before losing seven of them.

  ‘Quick, the other side. They’ve reached the top,’ Mai warned.

  I was at the outer edge of the wall where several beastmen were just mounting the crest. I turned around my spear and pressed the red button along its shaft. A wide plume of flame spewed forth from the spear’s back end. It incinerated three of the beastmen and forced a couple others to jump back off the way they came from.

  Before I could catch my breath, I pulled out my boom tube and dropped lightning bolts on the huddled masses below. It didn’t take much aim since they were packed so close together but the beastmen were tough, it took more than a bolt or two to kill them. Mostly it slowed them down.

  That was how I spent the next hour. Constantly moving from one skirmish to the next, trying to do everything I could to hang on. My stamina held up surprisingly well. Even after fighting for so long, I had only lost about a third of it and barely felt winded at all. I guess that’s what happens when you throw so many stat points into endurance.

  In such a long fight, no one is immune from taking a few hits and my health had gradually withered to a third of its maximum. I gulped down another of Albert’s recovery boosting broccoli cream puffs. Sounds disgusting, I know, but somehow all of Albert’s creations held marvelous effects and these were no exception. The cream puffs vastly increased health recovery and within ten minutes, I would be back to over half my health. The only problem was that this was my last one.

  This example was the perfect reflection of the current human state in this battle. No matter how many beastmen we killed or maimed there always seemed to be more. Like me and my creampuffs, the vitality of the human side was slowly running out.

  Sure, we had our magic, the high ground, and our defensive bulwarks. Sure, they didn’t have a response to Titania’s aerial forces, but it didn’t matter. The beastmen numbers were too great. Soon the last of our forces on the wall would fall and nothing would stop the beastmen from raiding the buildings and slaughtering all the helpless civilians.

  This battle was lost. I knew it and you could tell that everyone else began to realize it too. We were dead men simply going through the motions, some fighting for blind revenge, others out of blind fear, others still out of some delusional false hope for survival, none out of reason. No intelligent thinking person would believe this fight was winnable. We were surrounded and outnumbered. The enemy was faster, stronger, more skilled, and more experienced. I was out of tricks. The mana EMP, the fire bombs, the flying claws, all were effective, all worked as planned but it wasn’t enough.

  I ducked under a tigerman sword thrust and countered with a slash across his unarmored ankles. With both ankles bleeding, the tigerman’s balance grew unsteady and a swift kick was all I needed to push him back over the edge of the wall. One of his comrades swiftly took his place and I dispatched him with a rocket-boosted thrust to the face. Then I flipped the spear around and set a hairy cougarman on fire.

  ‘No, Isaac on the left,’ Mai warned.

  I followed Mai’s direction and noticed the beastman to the cougarman’s left just a moment too late. His armor was pitch-black like the scythe he wielded. The weapon fully extended in a swift horizontal strike just below eye level. In all the commotion, I’d made a fatal mistake.

  “Pause,” I shouted, activating my new Otheristry skill. The skill had a hefty stamina cost and only lasted three seconds but that was of little concern compared to my miniscule health levels. A well-placed blow could have been the end of me.

  The scythe froze. As did everything else in that chaotic battle, everything except me. I quickly dropped towards the ground. Relief filled my chest as I ducked under the scythe’s path but it didn’t last. As soon as I was out of the way, my three seconds ran out and the world returned to normal. The sythe sliced just overhead. The Pause skill worked as intended but it did next to no good. I dodged one strike but could do nothing about the next.

  That brief glimmer of relief quickly turned to fear as I watched helplessly as my would be excecutioner corrected his aim and the scythe slashed at me again.

  This was going to be it. I shut my eyes, not wanting to see anymore. The one good thing about it, I wasn’t going to have to witness the last of my soldiers get overwhelmed by the surrounding hordes. I wasn’t going to have to see the barricades torn down, exposing the young and infirm to savagery. I wasn’t going to watch the ungodly atrocities of Mill Valley be repeated, this time a thousand fold.

  My eyes flashed open. I hadn’t told them to and at first, I thought it was some primitive reflex, a natural instinct of all living things to never give up, to never accept death regardless of the situation’s futility, but that wasn’t what this was.

  It was a simple motion. One of my shoulders casually lifted as the rest of my body started to angle itself underneath. I stared curiously as my shoulder moved on its own into position and the armored shoulder pad blocked my view of the scythe.

  I heard a loud deep clang as the scythe deflected off my metal shoulder and sailed harmlessly over my head. I tried to jump back, to take advantage of my good fortune and put some distance between us before my enemy could take another swing, but found I couldn’t. My muscles refused to obey my commands to retreat.

  Instead my body surged forward right into the scythe wielding beastman’s face, close enough to make the scythe useless. My empty hand threw a quick jab to the beastman’s face, distracting him long enough for my spear to pierce the soft underside of his chin, finishing him off. I’d fended off certain death and returned it to my attacker, all without ever meaning to.

  My body acted but the meticulous motions weren’t mine. I had lost control, but it wasn’t like a blind battle rage or a blackout. I was conscious and understood everything that was going on, but I was simply a passenger as something else controlled me.

  Two beastmen carrying spears replaced the scythe wielding one and shot towards me. But before they could get in range, my body reacted. My legs crunched, releasing several times more force than they’d ever had, launching me in a large ten-foot high backflip back and over my allies on the wall. The horizontal distance of the jump was significantly greater than the vertical distance, overshooting the wall’s outside edge by a large margin.

  I squealed internally as I fell from the wall. I say internally because I couldn’t make a sound, my throat like everything else was out of my control. So this was to be my end, torn apart by the swarm of beastmen I fell into. My hand raised and fired the flying claw. The magnetic plate of the claw soared upward, but I knew it was useless the wall was made of solid stone so there was nothing for the magnetic hook to grab onto.

  Suddenly I felt the harsh characteristic tug on my arm as the claw halted my descent. The magnetic hook of the claw had somehow passed over the edges of the wall and latched onto the steel armor of some fallen beastman. The heavy beastman corpse served as the perfect anchor to prevent me from falling and, as though it had all been planned, my body entered a long swing across the side of the wall. As I swung, the cable acted as a clothesline knocking dozens attempting to scale the wall back to the ground. Meanwhile, my other hand holding the artifact spear activated its backside flamethrower roasting numerous beastmen below me. The fire did more than barbeque, it also served as a rocket, accelerating my path.

  As I reached the apex of the swing, the flying claw retracted, and then shot back out, latching onto another fallen warrior atop the wall. This cycle repeated over and over in a great ring all along the outside of the inner wall. Hundreds of beastmen died, wasted away by my sudden godlike appearan
ce.

  The morale of my men surged as they saw their leader deliver another massive blow to their enemy. Hope was rekindled in those who had lost it. They believed it was possible. Time after time, our side had surprised the beastmen. Time after time, we pulled out something unbelievable to stop them. The men started to believe that no matter what the enemy did we would surely find a way to overcome it.

  While the humans rejoiced my onslaught, the beastmen were hit by another wave of despair. How many of their brother in arms had died, how many times had they been beaten back at the precipice of victory, and, most fearful of all, was it happening again?

  That was the difference; the humans believed they could win, while the beastmen were unsure. The humans surged, doubling their attack speed and pushing back the beastmen horde. I spotted a trio of injured knights working together to push a beastmen over the ramparts. I saw exhausted mages eek out one more firebomb. Everyone was pushing themselves to the limit. It was some sight to witness, like watching David slay Goliath.

  I would have overflowed with pride if I wasn’t so overwhelmed with panic. I was a passenger in the middle of it all. My body automatically displaying a level of power and skill far beyond anything I had been capable of. However, the additional power didn’t come without a price. Even as I was steered by something else, I could still feel everything. Each super powered jump or punch made my muscles burn as they tore themselves apart from within.

  I went through enemies like butter, hundreds fell before me. With every twitch of my spear, throats were slashed and bodies were burned. With every swing of my fist, bones shattered and lungs collapsed. When crowd control was necessary, my body used my Otheristry expanded inventory to absorb large boulders and other debris. Then took advantage of the rock’s weightless state to climb high before releasing them. Heavy stones rained down from above like great meteors sent by a God to wipe clean the pathetic mortal vermin from the face of the earth because that is what I was. In that moment, I was the incarnation of Death.

  After a score of minutes, the devastation proved too much. The beastmen outside the wall gave up and began a steady retreat from the city. We didn’t pursue. Around half of our forces had died and what was left was exhausted.

  The beastmen already inside the walls, however weren’t in any position to run. Most tried to hold their ground as Titania’s troop slowly whittled them down from the relative safety of the air. A few made a beeline for the wall to try to break free, but freed from having to defend against attacks from the outside, the people along the wall had a much easier time focusing them down. Others tried to hole themselves up in buildings but this only delayed the inevitable.

  During the clearing efforts, I joined Titania’s troop in beautiful aerial maneuvers to dart around and attack. I would have thoroughly enjoyed swinging between skyscrapers like Spiderman if I hadn’t been utterly terrified by my continued lack of control. A single slip and I could fall hundreds of feet to my death.

  Within an hour of the beastmen retreat, the city was cleared out and my body stopped on the ground near the Academy. I felt control return to me. I was no longer trapped within myself. Apparently, whatever had taken me over had completed its task and returned control to me. I didn’t have much time to think about such things. Having been pushed past its normal limits for so long, my body was exhausted and immediately collapsed.

  Chapter 36: Result

  I awoke back in my bed to a jumble of nervous faces peering down at me. It was my friends: Rose, Zelus, Albert, and Titania.

  “Uhh, morning?” I said nervously, peering out the window to confirm my statement.

  “How long was I out?” I asked.

  “Four days,” said Zelus. “How are you feeling? You were in bad shape.”

  “Better,” I replied. “But not 100%. I guess I’ll try to take it easy for a few days.” While I was still sore, I was feeling considerably better than I had in the final moments before I passed out.

  I slowly pulled myself out of bed. My entire body still ached but it was a dull pain that while annoying was nothing compared to the debilitating sharp spasms from before.

  “What happened to my clothes?” I asked. A set of itchy white linens had replaced my coat and armor.

  “We changed them after the healer was through seeing to you,” Zelus explained. “He said something about internal burns but fortunately he was still able to treat you.”

  “I tried to get dem to cut out the back. Only to make you feel more at home, I azure you,” said Albert. “But the others offerruled me.”

  “So the healer changed them,” I relaxed.

  “No,” Titania started before a blushing Rose cut in.

  “You were amazing,” she said.

  “Well I told you all that the tricks would work,” I said proudly. “How many do you think we took out with the superMICs two, three thousand then there were the firebombs? That was like another ten.”

  Those devices were my pride and joy. With them, I had turned the tides of battle several times. They were a testament to my true power. I wasn’t physically powerful; most of the people of this world were stronger than me. My true strength was in the flexibility of my mind and knowledge from another world.

  “No, I wasn’t talking about those,” said Rose. “I meant the part at the end where you were slashing and stabbing people with impunity, dodging everything the enemy threw at you. You were like an avatar of Ahayuna or something.”

  My mouth drooped as I recalled the end of the fight when I’d inexplicably lost control.

  “The traps and stuff were still quite amazing,” Rose added. “I think I was just more amazed by your acrobatic performance because I wasn’t expecting it. We’ve known for weeks about the traps you were setting up, but your physical performance towards the end went beyond anything I could have…” Rose blushed again.

  This was but the first of many comments I’d hear that day about my display of battle prowess and with each one I cringed a little more. Not just because of the wrongness of people believing in my physical capabilities but because I was afraid. In the final stages of the battle, something had taken over me. But what did it? Why did it do it? And most importantly, would it happen again?

  I pondered these questions for a short while until I noticed the clamor coming from outside.

  “What’s that ruckus?” I asked.

  “Best you see it for yourself,” Rose answered, handing me a fresh set of clothes.

  A huge crowd had gathered around the Archlord’s mansion. Its size reminded me of a crowd I’d spoke to just a few weeks previously, the one demanding answers after the Archlord’s failed flight, but the atmosphere was completely different from then. While the ambience then was a mix of anger, fear, and despair, at this time it filled with ecstasy.

  The people scattered about in front of the mansion were eagerly engaged in conversation. Merchants busily discussed how long it’d take to reestablish trade routes and how to take advantage of the reconstruction materials that would soon be in high demand. Warriors showed off their latest battle scars and shared war stories like old men even though the war was only days old. Mages discussed the origin of all the equipment I’d supplied using the copy machine and all the devices I’d revealed in the battle. Throngs of young women gathered nearest to the Archlord’s mansion. Even with the distance and everything going on in the background, several could still be heard.

  “How much longer do you think he’s going to be? I can hardly breathe in this corset.”

  “Get out of the way, I was here first.”

  “Like you stand a chance. A hero deserves the best.”

  ‘Oh, if any of them knew the actual you…’ I expected to hear from Mai, but she was strangely absent.

  Everywhere people feasted as if they had not a care for the world. The ambrosial aromas of the rich foods made my mouth water. It was surprising to see such a feast considering a good portion of the city’s crops had been burned to prevent it from falling into e
nemy hands and food would surly become a limited commodity in the months to come, but victory deserved a splurge.

  When the crowd started to notice a few new additions coming from the Archlord’s porch, they rushed over to greet us.

  “Isaac, those beastmen got nothing on you.”

  “Praise to the defending heroes.”

  “Let’s take to the field and kick the beastmen all the way back to their caves.”

  I grew wary of all the attention. At heart, I had an extremely introverted personality. On Earth, the rest of my peers went on dates or competed in sporting events while I’d spent most of my time in books or videogames. Since I’d arrived on Tautellus, a lot had changed, but some hadn’t. I guess I had technically spent most of my time in the outdoors, but it wasn’t as if it’d been by choice. I’d first arrived in the middle of nowhere. Then after the fall of Mill Valley, I had to make a long trek to Crystalpeak. I still preferred to quietly study in the ebony halls of the Academy or in the secluded chambers of my underground sanctuary. For a guy like me, the heaps of praise tossed by the crowd were unsettling.

  They added to a growing concern in the back of my mind. If anything, my actions had only made things worse. If I hadn’t warned the city about the beastmen threat, they wouldn’t have sent out the 40,000 troops that were slaughtered. Most of those men would have remained secure behind the city walls and maybe the beastmen might not have attacked the city in the first place.

  “Isaac’s the best.”

  “He saved us all.”

  Still the people sang my praises, each one causing me to twinge a bit more. Eventually I gave in I couldn’t let this farce continue.

  “No,” I started to say, my words silenced the crowd as if they expected the word of god. “I’m not a hero. I’m just an ordinary guy doing what people do. Save your commendations for someone who deserves it.”