Hello there Beekeepers!
So, we're finally in Kingsmouth, yay! With a bit of a Demo with combat and the introduction of some key characters, I couldn't think of a better way to start the main arc!
DFTBA, Hope you guys like it, and dont forget to review ^_^


The youth emerged from the other side of the portal at a fast walk, his soft runners making little noise on the wooden planks that greeted him. In the unknown environment, Dmitri's hand dropped to his pistol as he glanced around, searching for danger and familiarising himself with his surroundings. He was standing on the deck of what seemed to be an ancient ship beached in a scraggly forest.

Dmitri explored the Viking Longboat he emerged from Agartha onto: the ship itself seemed to be centuries old, dating back to the 10th century at least, but its position in the cliff face and the flora growing out from the Agartha entrance seemed to indicate a more recent history.

The youth brushed the thought aside; he knew that he needed to get to a safe position to start his mission, and that he could always return to the mysterious longboat.

Dmitri moved to the port side of the longboat, where a large hole in the railing allowed for easy access to the wooded ground half a meter below him. As he landed, he heard something from behind him, footsteps on the decking on the ship. Dmitri quietly moved to the side, hiding in the shadows beneath the crippled longboat and waited to see who followed him.

Mere moments after Dmitri moved into the cover below the longboat, a figure in green garb jumped from the bow of the ship and started to run towards the opening on the small natural alcove that housed the Agartha portal. The man, no older than Dmitri was, wore a green and red jacket with green and red pants, both of which were embellished with gold trim that resembled an Asian dragon. At his wrists were a pair of vambraces, and around his neck was a white scarf, obscuring his lower face, leaving only a short head of wispy brown hair visible from behind. What caught Dmitri's attention more was the tactical shotgun that sat comfortably over the strangers shoulder, letting the Templar know to watch out for this man, whoever he was.

The Templar knelt, completely still, for about 5 minutes to ensure that the stranger had left the area and wouldn't return. As Dmitri waited, his eyes combed the area around him, ensuring that he wouldn't be surprised, whilst his mind processed the situation: there was something familiar about the stranger, the short wispy brown hair and general body shape, tall and skinny but defined and a show of martial discipline in the way he moved, triggering a memory in the deepest recesses of his mind, but unable to connect a name to a face.

Satisfied that the danger had passed, Dmitri slowly rose from his kneeling position, tucking the package under his left arm while he readied his blade in his right. After looking around again to determine he was alone, he sheathed his sword and left the alcove.

A few metres from the shadow of the longboat stood a campsite, inhabited by a single person: an older man with a long raw hide leather coat, cowboy hat, a short black beard and a hunting rifle by his feet. Suspended over the small campfire hung a pot, while behind the man stood a small red dome tent, suitable for a single person.

The man began to poke the fire with a stick as Dmitri approached him from the alcove. Glancing up, he say the confused look Dmitri wore before saying, "Aww, don't worry kid, you haven't gone back in time. I just happen to be the last of the cowboys. Got your southern welcome right here: crispy beans, Texas style; good to face evil on a full stomach." He chuckled before continuing. "Name's Boone, I'm a trouble-shooter, but you and I need to have a pow-wow before you go shooting for trouble. Illuminati may have legacy on Solomon Island, but you folks gave that up for the high life, and the low road. Sure you can be divided in purpose, but, we've got to stand united against darkness." Boone spoke with a thick Texan accent, the accent distorting certain words so that they can only be understood if given their full attention.

Boone put the stick aside and slowly rose to his feet, making sure to take it slowly as to not strain any of his muscles with sudden movement. "This ain't my first rodeo, I know we're going to need all the unity we can get. Don't mean to say you stepped into hell, but when the wind blows west, you can just about smell the brimstone. All we know is death and fog came from the sea, or someone brought it back with them; if I was a gambling man, I'd put money on that someone still being around."

"A bunch of survivors hold up in Kingsmouth Town, follow that main road and the sound of gunfire and you'll come to the Sheriff's office." Boone looked towards the main street he indicated, looking both ways before moving closer to Dmitri, his voice a loud whisper. "Kid, whatever your reasons for being here, find out what those people died for, and you bring a reckoning."

"I will." The youth said, nodding before he moved towards the township. Dmitri paused a few paces from Boone's camp before turning around. "Hey Boone, can I borrow your tent for a moment? This is the first safe place I've found and I don't want to carry my uniform with me in a hostile environment." He gestured to the package he held under his arm when he referred to his uniform. Boone nodded towards his tent before, added "Go ahead; just don't touch any of my gear." He then resumed his position by the campfire, agitating the coals with a stick.

Dmitri nodded gratefully and promptly entered the small tent. The tent had little inside it, but the small sleeping equipment present was haphazardly thrown around the interior. Dmitri ignored the items and sat cross-legged, the parcel on his lap as he moved to open it. Inside the package was three distinct layers of items: The first was a wireless earpiece and watch set, sitting right on top of the package, the second was a uniform similar to that of the Templars at temple hall, the crimson material a resilient glossy leather that had steel reinforcement in certain areas made into an over jacket and pants, along with a white full face mask, black boots, and a belt. The last item was a backpack, small and black with clips that hooked onto a harness that seemed to be designed to rest under the over jacket. The backpack had two access points on the top and bottom. Dmitri told himself he'd look at it later before donning his uniform, pack, earpiece, and watch.

After he placed the folder he carried into his new pack, Dmitri emerged from the tent and bade Boone farewell before he headed out towards Kingsmouth town.

The highway to Kingsmouth was littered with abandoned cars and small petrol fires, obvious signs of the gravity of the situation at Kingsmouth.

The first sign that something was wrong was when the hair on the back of Dmitri's neck stood erect; he could sense a presence nearby, something was watching him, something malicious. Soon after the Templar realized something was wrong, he felt a vibration trigger around his left wrist: his watch vibrated three times, the square screen, about an inch across, showed a red warning signal across the screen. Dmitri turned his wrist over to reveal a second readout, projected on his wrist; the readout reminded Dmitri of old Submarine movies with their radar systems. On the screen showed a central dot, presumably Dmitri, with two red dots on the lower half of the screen.

It was then that Dmitri heard the moan.

The youth turned slowly, hands moving to his weapons. As he came to face the creatures, they took off running towards him. Their faces were distorted and flesh was absent across much of their body, skin hanging off in parts where they were bitten, their blood long since stagnated.

Dmitri flinched and took a half step back, his hands dropping instinctively to his blade as the zombies rapidly crossed the gap that separated them from the Templar.

As his mind raced and adrenaline surged through his body, Dmitri didn't think about what he would do next. The youth stepped towards the first zombie and drew his katana, using the same motion to slice the razor sharp blade clean through the zombie's abdomen and out the other side. The next zombie was upon him moments later, slashing at the youth with its sharp fingernails. In response Dmitri spun on his heel, using the momentum of the full turn to slice the second zombie from shoulder to hip in a two-handed diagonal slash.

"What a waste." He muttered as he pushed the repulsion past his consciousness to deal with at a later date. He had started to move down the road when he heard another moan behind him. The youth turned to see one of the zombies, the one he severed at the waist, crawling slowly towards him with hunger in its eyes. Dmitri approached the corpse and stabbed down through its skull, leaving the undead beast lifeless.

Dmitri turned and continued down the highway towards Kingsmouth. He could see four vehicles past the first he just passed, two cars, a four wheel drive, and a police car. As Dmitri approached the four wheel drive, he could see the corpse of a small child wedged inside the door of the passenger side, the white paint of the door covered in red as a spray of blood left its mark from the child's demise.

Dmitri's watch vibrated again and he glanced back to his wrist: the projection showed three objects behind him, causing the youth to turn. As soon as he did a zombie was upon him, slamming Dmitri back into the car with its momentum. He smashed the walker's head into the car's back window and stunned it before kicking the zombie back into the other two. Two of the zombies, one a girl no more than 18 in a blood stained dress, the other an older man in a suit, ran again at Dmitri. He knew that he had little room to use the full power of his blade, so Dmitri used smaller, less powerful strikes to beat the zombies back and give him more room.

Dmitri cut at both undead before him, hitting the first in the shoulder with the edge of his blade, and the other in the middle of its chest with his pommel. As he gathered himself for another attack, the first zombie, the one who charged him, leapt out from between the other two and ran at him; Dmitri raised his blade and ran the zombie through, letting it impale itself on his weapon. He pushed the zombie back and retrieved his blade, pulling it out to his right to deliver more damage to the zombie.

The youth stood, legs braced and knees bent, with his sword low to his right, ready for another attack. From the tips of the fingers on his right hand, he could feel a slight tingle, almost like static energy concentrating on his hand and into his blade, similar to the feeling he felt in his bedroom no more than a week before.

"Ha!" Dmitri shouted as he slashed with his katana across all three zombies, bringing it from right to left in a diagonal slash. As he did, he could feel energy erupting from his blade, a weak blue flame trailing in the wake of his attack; the first zombie hit suffered the most damage from the attack; it's waist was severed as its flesh smouldered from the deep gash to its abdomen, the second fell with a large cut across its chest and the third fell silent, its head cut clean in half with the top half flung across the road.

The youth flinched back, panting, and look at his blade; small tendrils of flame clung weakly to the surface of the blade before they vanished from sight. He took in a deep breath before he finished off the other two undead creatures, stabbing down with the tip if his blade with enough force to penetrate, but not enough to risk hitting the asphalt below.

He swiftly recomposed himself before he continued down the road, mindful of every noise and movement in the thinning tree line by the road. Dmitri constantly checked his watch for any signs of danger, but his instinct told him to move without having to rely on the radar system, thinking he'd walk into a car without seeing it if he had his eyes glued to his wrist.

Dmitri passed the final civilian car and approached the police car, its front windscreen shattered and blood spray obscuring the police markings on its sides. As he got within a meter of the car, he could see numerous ammo box scattered across the passenger side of the car, with more blood drenching the leather from a hand reaching over from the back seat, completely lifeless.

The youth moved to the passenger door and put his hand on the sticky handle, the deep red of the spray partially dry to touch. As he went to pull the handle towards him, a blood curdling roar echoed through the trees behind him, on the left hand side of the road; Dmitri turned suddenly, his hands naturally falling to his katana, ready for a fight.

Off in the woods, a dull whistle could be heard as something fell, followed by a loud thud of a tree hitting the ground. Dmitri sighed and drew both of his pistols as he thought that it would be a bad idea to get close to whatever made that roar. Moving silently, the Templar moved off the road and into the forest, muscles tensed and movement restricted. Sliding from one shadow to another, he kept both of his pistols down but ready to fire at a moment's notice.

About ten meters from the track, Dmitri saw a lone figure in the thin tree line as the trees thinned this close to the cliffs. The figure stood in the middle of half a dozen corpses, unmoving with huge chunks of flesh flayed from their forms. The figure itself has a hulking monstrosity, its back a bloated mass of muscle and scar tissue with strips of cloth desperately clinging together in the vague shape of a shirt torn from stress at sudden expansion of mass of its wearer, the creature's legs were short and tiny in the shadow of its gigantic arms and torso, the remnants of brown cargo pants hanging from its hips, from its huge shoulders hung a pair of very muscular arms, covered in scar tissue and deep gashes from defending itself.

The beast picked its head up from its meal, dropping the leg it was feeding on and sniffed the air, turning to find the fresh scent of warm blood. Dmitri caught a glance at its face before he ducked behind a tree: its lips drawn back permanently to reveal its large humanoid teeth, eyes sunken into a shadowed hovel of its eye socket, and its bald scalp pulsing with veins. The head itself sat below its shoulders, as the shoulder muscles bulked up over its neck making it hunch over.

Dmitri gripped his pistols tightly, his knuckles bone white and his breathing short and raspy as he pressed his back into the tree, a small sliver of fear worked into his heart at the sight of the Corpse Gorger. The sliver was driven deeper into his heart as the tree Dmitri lent against shook violently. The Gorger banged the tree a second time as he began to move around the trunk to where Dmitri cowered.

Almost instinctively, the Templar ducked out of the way as a huge hand smacked into where his head had been moments before. The impact causing the tree to shudder and fracture. He dashed around the tree and ran into the middle of the clearing with his legs wide and his pistols aimed at the Gorger. The first two Anima rounds made him flinch as he pulled the triggers, propelling the bullets at the Gorger.

It roared in rage as it turned to face the interloped who had interrupted its feast, then charger.

Dmitri panicked and fired another two rounds at the Gorger, missing one completely and the other glancing off its muscular shoulder, before he dashed out of the way at the last minute. He rose to his knees as the Gorger hit a tree at the end of its charge, and the youth smiled, "Well, Mr. Bull, let's play."
Casting the sliver of fear aside, Dmitri rose to his feet and balanced on the balls of his feet, then when he was steady he let out a high pitched whistle to get the Gorger's attention. The Gorger met the whistle with another cry of rage as it charged at the Templar but was denied its prey at the last moment as Dmitri dashed to the side. It let out a grunt of pain as a pair of Anima rounds hit it in the side, a trickle of blood running down its side.

It turned to face Dmitri again, its movements awkward and its eyes filled with mindless rage. The Gorger charged at the youth again, its massive paws missing the youth by mere centimetres as he moved slightly to the side and ducked beneath the gigantic arm, firing twice at short range into the Gorger's side at rapid succession. At the sudden pain in its side as four Anima rounds impacted it at close range, the Gorger suddenly swung out to where Dmitri stood, flinging him across the clearing, but it lost its footing and crashed into the ground, causing dirt and leaf litter to be flung into the air.

Dmitri was thrown across the clearing, his flight stopped as he was flung into a tree, knocking the breath out of him. Slowly, he rose from his prone position, pain radiating from his left side where it had made contact with both the Gorger's arm and the tree that stopped his twelve meter flight; he looked over to the Gorger and saw that it was nearly on its short stubby legs, so Dmitri began to panic again, pain and fear overriding coherent thought. Quickly, he rose to his feet and set his sights back on the Gorger as it awkwardly shambled towards him. As he went to pull the trigger, a branch rolled under him, his left foot going out.

Dmitri fell back to the ground, his left shoulder hitting the ground and sent a spike of pain through his body. He released his right pistol as he moved to clench his left shoulder, yet already the pain was beginning to recede from his body. A shadow moved over him as the Gorger towered over him, its hands balled together high over its head, ready to descend onto the prone Templar.

Although the sound of Dmitri's heartbeat and breathing filled his ears, a loud crash could be heard across the clearing: a flash of light arced through the trees and hit the Gorger, causing it to take a step back and bring its muscular arm down to protect its head. Moments later, another two bolts arced towards the Gorger, one impacting its elbow, the other its hip, driving it back further.

Dmitri released his shoulder and retrieved his fallen pistol and slowly rose to his feet as another two bolts impacted the Gorger. His eyes followed the bolts back to a figure on the edge of the clearing: her body small and petite, but he could sense she was well built from her body language, her trench coat a deep blue with a large triangle in a lighter blue below her left hip, a gas mask covering her face.

The new contender brought her hands together by her right hip, allowing a dull red glow to grow in her hands before she shot them forward with her wrists together and her palms parallel to each other, her right hand above her left. A large fireball shot from her hands, flying across the clearing and hitting the Corpse Gorger directly. The Gorger fell to the ground, enveloped in flames.

Dmitri rose and strode towards the prone monstrosity, firing his pistols in a flurry of bullets towards his foe. As he fired, Dmitri could feel the grips of his handles begin to warm up, similar to how his sword felt previously before he finished the three zombies by the four wheel drive. As the Gorger began to rise again, his movements unhindered by the storm of Anima fired at him, Dmitri cast his pistols aside and drew his blade, allowing his pace to increase into a charge as he prepared to attack the beast. The Gorger looked up to see Dmitri, mid leap, with his katana aimed directly for its head.

The blade struck home as the Gorger's arm came up to late to catch the Templar mid-air, the beast stood there for a moment before it slowly began to fall backwards, impacting the ground with a solid 'thud'.

Dmitri rose and withdrew his blade from the corpse of the Gorger, then turned to the direction that the Illuminati agent stood, only to find her gone. "Hmm, not very social that one." He said to no one in particular. He then moved to retrieve his pistols after sheathing his blade, the pain in his shoulder completely gone.

The Templar hastily returned to the road, his path taking him directly to the police car.

He approached the car again and went to open the door; he half expected something else to jump out at him as he did so, but nothing attacked him as he opened the door and retrieved the assorted rounds of ammunition, placing the rounds in his backpack via the bottom pocket so he wouldn't have to take the bag off.

Dmitri continued down the road, past the vehicles and headed to the closest corner of the Police Station: Outside the makeshift barricade stood a large green sign, which used to read "Kingsmouth. Ahead" with an arrow directing travellers to the right towards the police station. A hastily written "D" now covered the start of the second word, written in blood so the sign now read, "Kingsmouth. Dead."

Dmitri shook his head and moved past the sign to continue his mission.

At the end of the road, Dmitri could see the Sheriff's office: its dark blue walls mirroring the dark sky above, with a makeshift blockade at its main gates. The youth passed by the blockade made of tables, cars, and steel wire, the survivor on guard duty waving him through to the sheriff. As Dmitri passed through the haven, he could see that no more than 25 people were in the courtyard, many of which armed with firearms but half a dozen cowering by the cars that reinforced the weak wire fences that once surrounded the Sheriff's office.

The youth entered the office and approached a woman in a police uniform, her weary form sitting behind a desk sifting through papers and maps. "Sheriff?" Dmitri assumed as his voice snapped her out of her paperwork.