The Great Game: Principium
"ABC" – Dialogue
I was falling.
Beautiful. Just fucking beautiful. My first view of this world and it's me falling from the sky. It's like she couldn't even pin-point land, so she just decided falling from the sky would do. When I get back, I'm going to murder her. That is, if i could.
While I am free-falling in the sky, many miles from the ground, I decided to check my gear, I have a olive green trench coat with the hood over my head, flapping around as the wind pushes up against it, as well as an reinforced composite metal chest-plate, and a gas mask with two filters, along with backup filters just in case.
The less important equipment included the white t-shirt underneath my coat, khaki cargo jeans, and some old dirt brown military boots. She didn't even give me a parachute though. I guess it looks like I'm going to have to break a leg or two.
Below me, I could see a large vibrant city. Surrounding that, a sea of green was spread across the land, rising and falling like hills. I was about to plunge deep into a forest, crash through a tree or two, and do all this at what seems like terminal velocity. One hell of a way to make an entrance into this dimension in my opinion.
Relaxing my body and arms, I bent my knees slightly enough to reduce the impact of the fall. Covering my head, I braced myself for the impact.
I plunge into a branch, completely tearing it off the tree, and demolished many smaller twigs on the way down. My feet collide with the ground, causing the blow of the impact to ripple throughout my body. The impact kicked up dust way beyond the tree tops, while dirt was forcefully uprooted from the ground.
I fell onto my side in an attempt to minimize the impact, but the severe damage had been done. My legs were crippled now, the crimson stained the khaki, and it would take a full day for them to recover to a "moderate" condition.
My bones had snapped completely, and my right tibia was protruding right out of my leg. That stupid fucking idiot could have at least put me closer to the ground.
I began to use my hands to pull myself out of the small hole. With my legs screwed like this, anywhere was better than here. I could just 'zip' myself somewhere else, but that would slow down the healing by quite some time.
To my left, I heard rustling coming my way. I started to increase my pace and dragged myself out of the small crater, quickly hiding myself into a thick thorny bush. I ignored the sharp thorns as they brushed against me and attempted to stay as silent as possible.
As a precaution, I pulled out a large revolver out from underneath my coat. It was a D&E 'Titan' Model 500, a massive hand-cannon revolver that had a cylinder with six chambers that took six 50. Cal bullets. This gun was my lovely baby. Normally this type of gun would be insane for the average person, but then again, I'm not.
I chambered the gun with four rounds, but stopped as the figure got even closer. I held my breath and quietly took aim. I had one finger ready on the hammer, another on the trigger, just waiting to be sure that whatever I was going to shoot at was hostile.
It could be anything for all I know. It could be a bird, a wolf, boar, bear, or a deer. It could even be some fucked up monstrosity that put fear even into the most iron-willed of people. It could be anything, like a…
A small, blue, gelatinous, thing with dog ears as well as a canine face and a bushy tail...
What the fuck is this thing?
It was bouncing my way, albeit slowly. With ever closer bounce, it felt more and more non-threatening. Of course, it could be toxic, so I kept my sights on it. I am sweating, and breathing in and out more rapidly.
For some reason I also feel much warmer, and it feels like my back is a hell a lot heavier too.
Then I feel a tongue lick me.
In a frenzy, I haul my ass out of the bush, where one dog-slime had apparently "ambushed" me from behind. In my scramble to get away, I tumbled down, back into the pit I came from, and collided with the other dog-slime. Surprisingly, they feel warm for being pretty much 90% gel, and it actually softened my collision with it.
Even so, I still kept my gun on the two of them. Both of the creatures continued to jump towards me, like the most little menacing bastards in history. Despite one of them licking me, I still haven't been able to figure out if they are toxic or not.
More rustling was heard, and I saw more of the dog-slimes emerging from the forest. They had all come to investigate the crater, and they were all staring me down. I only had four rounds in my gun so far, and there were about thirty-fifty of the things.
I braced myself as they all came bouncing towards me, and waited for the worst. As soon as they got close, they began to lash out.
They all began to lick me.
For some reason, all they did was bump into me and lick me. I don't know if this is a friendly or hostile gesture, but I don't really feel like wasting a round on these things.
I put the safety back on my gun, and set it back inside my coat. It was kind of adorable to be honest, watching them rubbing against me and just licking me.
Since they seemed to pose no threat, I ignored them and rolled onto my back, and decided to call it a day. Using a random rock as a pillow, I attempted to sleep.
It seems the dog-slime things knew that I was sleeping as well. As soon as I stopped moving when I got comfortable, they start to 'cuddle' me. By cuddle, I mean pile on top of me.
At this point, they were getting real irritating. One of them touched my bloody right leg, jutting the already protruding tibia even further out, causing me to wince in pain. That was enough.
"Get off me you damn fucking things!" I screamed.
I started to slap away at the damn dog-slimes, flinging them left and right, and scrambled for my gun. Drawing it out, I pointed at the closest of the dog-slimes and cocked the gun.
A diagonal slash with my sword cut the dogoo easily. It was the forty-eighth one I killed today. I was puffing and gasping for air, my legs sore and arms aching in agony. I had taken a quest to exterminate a large rampant Dogoo population, but there were more of them than I initially had expected.
I checked my quest status. Only two more Dogoos were left before I could turn in the quest and go home.
I was too worn out to move on and search for the last two, and opted for a short break. I could go after the last two after a quick rest, it's not like they were going anyway, let alone that there were hundreds of the Dogoos still out there. Sheathing my sword, I just fell down and collapsed with my back facing the cool grass. In peace, I let out a sigh of relief and stretched my arms and legs.
Bang!
Startled, I rose up quickly and looked around my area.
Bang!
There it was again. It sounded like a gun going off, though where?
Bang!
Again, in succession with the other previous gunshots.
Deep in the forest, the third shot rang and echoed from the darker deeper part of the forest. I waited for a few minutes, but did not hear it again.
Someone was in trouble.
Somebody was out there and needed help, and I was the only one who could probably help. However, the person was in the deeper part of the forest, and the locals have told me not to venture any further than the outskirts. The deeper part was said to have a powerful monster hidden inside it. Yet that person needed help…
Despite the warnings, I ran deep inside the darkness of the forest, searching frantically for the person. The problem was that the gunshots seemed to have bounced throughout the forest, making it hard to pin-point what direction it exactly came from.
Another problem was that the forest was… scary. There were twigs snapping, bushes rustling, and weird noises that cried and screamed from all around. I felt like I was being watched, constantly from the forest, as if it had eyes on everything here.
Pushing aside the creepiness of the forest from my mind, I kept on searching. After a tiring search, I had finally come across what may have been the source.
A two feet crater that had a wide diameter about seven to ten feet. Inside the crater were numerous blue slime residues, and four over-sized bullet casings. There was no way a person could have killed numerous Dogoos with just four rounds, even if it came from some huge oversized gun. There was something that caught my attention though.
Near where the bullet casings were was a pool of blood, and alongside it, a leg. I just stared at the scene. The leg had a part of its bone just sticking out of it, and it looked like it had been neatly sliced off from the body. I wanted to run, run as far away as possible from the scene. I felt like vomiting, but I especially most felt terrified. The person must have been killed and carried off by what-ever creature must have found them, but if that was the case, there was a problem…
There was no blood trail leading anywhere. The pool of blood only stayed around the amputated leg, and had no leading trail anywhere out of the crater. I moved closer to examine the leg, pinching my nose to block out the putrid smell of blood. There were remains of a drab light-brown garment on the leg, though most of it had been dyed red by now.
I knelt down and picked up one of the bullet casings. It was about as long, no…, longer than my middle finger, and wider than my thumb. Just in the palm of my hands, it ran across all the way from one end of my palm to the other, and extended out. To think that someone fired four rounds of these was insane.
I sighed. The person was probably dead by now. I guess I could report this in as a missing person report or something.
I heard the cocking of a gun somewhere.
"Hands up. Don't do anything stupid unless you want to see the world through the eyes of the dead." A low, rough voice said behind me. I raised my hands up in the air, and slowly proceeded to turn around to face the person.
It was a tall looking man sitting on a branch of one of the forests many tall trees, wearing what seemed to be an olive-green long coat, with the ends of the coat just draping off the branch, though a part of the coat was covering his right leg. On his chest, he wore a metal chest-plate, which to me would seem like an impediment for someone who climbed a tree so tall. His coat had a hood, which he was currently wearing on top of his mask, which had two circular eye windows, as well as having two circular things that jutted out from the side of the mouth. From his left leg, he wore the same dull light-brown pants as the amputated leg.
What really caught my eye was what he had pointed at me. It was a massive revolver, a monster gun if you can call it that. It's big enough that he could use it as a small club. There is no way any normal person could comfortably use that gun, let alone with one hand like he was.
"I just told you not to do something stupid, and you decide it's time to turn around and look me in the eye?" The man says, scolding my decision to face him "Whatever, I got two questions for you. First, where the hell am I?"
"You're in Gamindustri…"
"What location and country?"
"You're in a forest in Leanbox."
"Leanbox?" He sighs "Whatever, I'll wrap my head around that later. Second question, who are you, and are you affiliated with whatever security force Leanbox has?"
"I'm Hana" I murmured out.
"What? Speak up"
"I'm Hana!"
"There we go. Now are you affiliated with any Leanbox security force or whatever?"
"Does being a member of the Guild count?" I ask him
"Ehh, close enough." He says. He relaxes slightly, but keeps his aim on me. "Now scram. I ain't got business with you."
I slowly back away, keeping my eye on him. As soon as I'm out of his sight, I silently circle around his position. Now's my chance.
Quickly drawing my sword, I grab a random rock and dash towards him.
BANG!
It's one of the loudest gunshots I ever heard. There is no way a bullet like that belongs in such a gun.
It narrowly misses me, kicking up dirt into a cloud of dust as it collides into the ground. Quickly, I hurl the rock at him. He ducks, but loses balance, and narrowly drops off the branch, grabbing it with his left hand. I kick myself off the side of the tree and grab his long coat, dragging him down to the ground.
He lets out a painful grunt as he falls to the ground. He tries to get up, but I swiftly pin him down with my foot on his back. I then place my blade inches away from his throat.
"Wow, you fight well." He calmly commended me.
"Now, it's my turn" I say "Where did you come from?"
"The sky" He says nonchalantly.
I push down harder on his back with my foot.
"Don't screw with me! Where did you seriously come from?!"
He lets out a deep sigh.
"I just told you, the sky. If you want proof, look around you."
I feel like he's just going to keep screwing with me. I should...
Wait, he couldn't mean…
"You caused this crater?!"
"Yeah, I fell and caused it." He casually says.
"But that doesn't make any sense. If you caused a crater this big, you should be dead."
"Well, that means I'm stronger than the average human, heh."
"Shut up! Tell me what you came here for."
He stays silent for quite a while, and I wonder if he is refusing to answer. I push down harder on his back, but he still refuses to even speak. He doesn't even grunt, as if it was nothing to him.
"Say something!" I yell. I begin to stomp on his back, but it's like hitting a rock. He won't bulge or speak up.
"Hurry up! Tell me before I lop that deaf head of yours off your body!"
"Behind you." He casually warns me
An earth-shattering roar announces the arrival of a new threat. Quickly turning to face the new threat, I see a claw just coming down at me. Swiftly, I just barely duck to dodge its swipe and leap backwards out of the way.
In front of me, a massive and broad monster had come this way. It probably smelled blood from the amputated leg and came for a quick snack. I could feel its deathly glare on me. I had never fought a creature on this level, let alone attempted to yet. And now here I was, stranded in the middle of nowhere, armed with only a sword and stuck with an unknown person and a massive threat. I'm wondering what I did to deserve all this. I just want to go home…
A loud bang shakes me out of my state of terror as the man just rolls over and fires at the creature in its right eye. The massive beast shrieks in agony, and desperately begins to clutch its bloody eye, turning its attention from me to him. He fires once more, this time hitting the other eye, causing blood to spew out like a crimson fountain. In its state of agony and blindness, the monster unleashes a furious frenzied attack, swiping and clawing violently at the air.
"I'm out." He says, calmly emptying out the used shells. I don't know how he stays composed when fighting such a massive beast at such a close proximity.
As he's about to load in a new round, the monster gets a lucky strike and slashes his gun in half. Not even fazed, the man pulls out a small knife, but the odds were clearly against him.
"Damn it, that was expensive" He complains
I have to do something, and fast, before the guy gets cut up into large chucks of flesh and bone. Besides, I still had questions for him.
Dashing forward, I ducked under and slashed at the monster's belly, leaving a small diagonal slash. It quickly swiped down, tearing off a bit of my clothes. Quickly, I circled around to his back and attempted to slash at his neck, but his thick tough hide was too strong for my sword. In response, the monster reached for me, grasping at whatever part of me it can hold onto. I dodged and ducked, avoiding his sharp claws every time he reached for me.
"Yeah, hold him still, just like that." The man says. I hear another cocking sound. The hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I feel like something's up. I hop off the monster's back, and just seconds later, a large bullet tears through the monster, puncturing straight through the monster's chest, as well as its thick hide, while being accompanied with an ear-deafening bang. I clasp my ears tight, but the ringing doesn't stop.
The monster stumbled, before just falling down and dissipating into the air.
The man was now carrying a different gun this time. It was like a pistol, but with the barrel of a rifle attached to it. The barrel itself was wide, and unlike any other gun, this one looked like a single shot. He flipped open the barrel and ejected a much larger casing, which was insanely larger than the other one. I don't even know how he even fired this one without breaking his shoulders.
"Not what I imagined, but the job is done mostly." He mutters. I have nothing to say in response.
He holstered the behemoth back into his coat, which made no sense whatsoever, and just laid down on the ground. Panting, exhausted, and tired from today's events, I just stumbled and just sat on my butt right next to him.
"How… How do you shoot a gun that big…? "I asked.
"Well, it's magic."
I'm too tired to pry him of any more information. I'm just going to assume he isn't going to reveal anything any time soon.
"Well… Do you want to come to Leanbox with me?"
"Huh? Yeah, sure, but one request."
"What?"
"Can you fetch my leg?"
He then points to the leg, which was now more bruised due to the recent fight.
"Go fetch it yourself, it's your leg after all."
Well shit, I knew where she would take me.
"Yeah, this is the suspect" Hana says. She then points to me. "Don't worry about him fighting back. He's out of ammo and he's lost his right leg."
Two guards come in and take me by each of my arms. Accompanying them was some well-dressed lady.
"Suspect, we have an accusation that you are an agent infiltrating Leanbox. Until you are proven innocent, we will detain you in jail. If you speak up the truth now and reveal your true intent, your punishment will be less severe. Refusal to speak will extend your detainment. If you have anything to say, say it now."
I just stare at her. It's not like I have anything to say to her, anything that isn't confidential of course.
"I see," She says "Take him away from here and to his cell."
~Meanwhile, elsewhere~
"Ahh!"
"Sis, what is it?!"
"Something... Something horrible..."
"What is it sis?! please tell me!"
"I feel like my position as the protagonist is under fire!"
"But it can't be that bad, right? Maybe it's temporary."
"Nepgear, don't you get it?! We're in a fanfiction! We might be delegated to secondary status or even worse, be made into side characters!"
"Ahh! That is terrible! What are we going to do?!"
"I'm going to investigate this and preserve our status as main characters! Come with me Nepgear!"
"Okay! I'm right behind you!"