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E-Rantel 5 Days Ago
Sweat sprinkled the sides of Marco's head as he stared blankly at his palm, or what he held in it to be accurate. It's been almost a week since he had what he considered a 'fateful encounter' with the armored man, but he still baffled at the thought of it, unable to understand how the man could give out a chunk of gold so easily.
In a world where everybody's trying to climb to the top, people aren't afraid to get their hands dirty- or drag others down with them as they fall. So Marco's suspicions about the gold being real were warranted.
Naturally, the first response to such suspicions would be to have it appraised.
And that's what he did.
Marco wasted no time, choosing to go to the Merchant's Guild and have an expert assess it the day after. However, that's where he muddled.
"Sir, that's a fine piece you got there. Not only is the gold purer than the gold coins we use, but the details and designs are splendidly done. If you were asking for an equity value of the gold, then the pin you have is equivalent to approximately 10 Gold Coins..."
His eyes widened hearing the price. 1 Gold Coin was enough for his entire family to eat for a whole month.
"...however, if you factor the engravings into the price, it could be sold for more than 200."
"Th-That Much!?"
"Mhm. I've never seen anything so… perfect. I'm afraid to say not even the finest craftsmen would be able to replicate the design itself. But when you consider that this is pure gold, such a thought would make any artist shiver. To get your hands on a chunk of complete gold is a feature in itself… then there's the immaculate skill required to engrave this…"
Marco held onto the pin like it was the air he breathed… most likely, he held it in higher regard than his mother did him when he was born. He left shortly after, failing to hear the muttered last words of the Expert.
"...I pity the soul he stole that from…"
Marco replayed the conversation from 6 days ago on repeat in his head. Knowing the value of it, he decided to pin it on the inside of his shirt, hiding it like a guilty pleasure. Though he wanted to show off such an item, more people learning of it meant a larger target on his back- one he wasn't willing to accept. He wasn't going to die before seeing his dream materialize.
Despite the crowded streets and heat searing into his skin, all he could think about was that pin.
How… How could he give it away so carelessly…
The more he wondered about the mysterious man, the more confused he became. So he gave up on it and patted the left breast part of his shirt where the pin lay, and he went on to finish his job.
Though he could sell the pin and live luxuriously, he decided what to use the pin for the moment it was given to him, and before he learned it's true value; as such, he still needed to work and earn his share of coins.
Being a peasant was rough, but there were tricks and tips he discovered along the way, helping him prepare for when he turns of age. His job was one of these things.
Working as a local city porter, he helped any shop owner or the person who required him to move things. It didn't matter what it was as long as it weighed a bit. To Marco, this was his training.
...And he was getting paid for it.
Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he walked into the herb shop he was working at today.
"Heya, I'm ready for the next set!"
"The last ones should be by the counter. Sorry if it's a little heavy, my grandson usually does this but he's been out of the city for a while. If everything went smoothly, he should be back by today."
The elderly woman with grey hair, his employer, told him. Marco didn't need to be a full-grown adult to hear her underlying message.
I won't need you to come back tomorrow.
He grunted and proceeded to do his work.
E-Rantel in the Evening
The swishing sounds of metal swimming inside his pocket put a smile on Marco's face. Though his employer worked him hard, she paid more than the average person so he didn't mind the extra effort. After all, the effort needed was the reason why he liked his job.
5 coppers… two more than usual.
He was on his way home, thinking of ways to save his earnings when the first wave of terror emerged.
A mountain-sized shadow fell over E-Rantel, darkening everything he could see. He glanced around to find what caused the change, but his sight halted when it landed on the second fortress wall.
Squinting to get a better look, he could make out what was to be countless white things the size of an adult. But his focus was on the sluggish beings that jumped off the wall with no regard, crashing into the ground like rain. The screams that followed, enlightened him- Skeletons and Zombies.
Armies of skeletons lined their bodies against the walls so the monsters could scale the wall in a ladder-like manner. Dozens of different monstrosities flooded into the city with Zombies leading the mix, spreading out like spilled water on a piece of paper.
Marco didn't know how to respond, he froze at the mere sight of the Undead. Though he dreamt of slaying these abominations, that was only in the future when he accumulated the right experience. But he knew if he stayed, he would end up like the others so he ran in the opposite direction.
With each step forward, he could hear the danger approaching.
He let the remaining saliva slither down his throat, pushing out the cries for salvation as the onslaught continued.
He ran for what felt like hours, but he wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop now.
City guards and adventurers ran past him, heading to the danger. Each one tried to push back the wave of Undead...
But it was all for naught.
The sea flooded through E-Rantel, breaking every barrier placed for defense.
I have to get out of here…
Marco gasped for air as he thought of how to escape. His breath grew deeper as his legs wore away.
Running through the alleys, he circulated through the market area, trying to find anyone to help him.
Left, right, forward, back… Every turn he took led him to despair. Despite his many years roaming the city, the pressure on him now wiped away all his memories of the place.
He truly was a fresh fish thrown into the sea.
As the string of hope grew shorter and his lifeline seemed all the farther away, he sprinted as fast as he could. Giving up on directions, he put all his effort into getting as far away as possible. Until-
Thunk!
Bringing his hands up to rub his face, a red stream flowed across his face and down his nose. His head was still fuzzy from crashing into a wall, but his vision focused and he could see the traces of blood on his palm and shirt.
Marco struggled to stand up, but he broke through his limits and breathed deeply. As he exhaled, he calmed his mind and surveyed the area.
Nothing stood out. He was surrounded by plain walls and bins full of trash, ready to be wasted. But as his coverage slowed, the Undead caught up to him. A pack of Zombies and skeletons collided as they competed for space in the alley, moving closer to Marco with each growing second. He turned around to scout behind him, and his worst thoughts manifested themselves.
Standing behind him, another large group of undead blocked his way out.
"...why am I not surprised…" He murmured under his breath.
With nothing to defend himself with, he knew the inevitable would reach him sooner or later. Perhaps the idealist in him wanted to live on to see his dreams become real, or perhaps it was his youth that failed to succumb to death… Either way, he molded his will to fight back, even knowing he would have no chance at surviving.
Marco closed his fists, squeezing till his nails cut into his skin, and he brought his hand up to fight. While he didn't know martial arts, nor did he specialize in brawling, he coiled his muscled in his arm- preparing to launch a quick strick to the first enemy that came into his range.
Zombies slowly stumbled forth, clawing at the walls with their hands. As they got closer, time seemed to slip away into nothingness.
He hated the feeling of being useless, and he hated the feeling of waiting for death to pull his feet from below. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. When his eyes opened, he locked on to the first thing he saw- an average-sized zombie.
Charging, he pushed with all his remaining energy into his leg as he propelled onwards. When the Zombie came into reach, Marco released his coiled arm, and his fist shot like a bullet aimed right for the Zombie's head.
However, the Zombie stuck its hand out in an attempt to grab Marbo's head. Though Marco's fist made contact first, and the force was enough to push the Zombie back… With the infinite wave of Undead backing it, the Zombie simply stumbled back and bounced forward with twice the momentum.
Marco couldn't stop his direction in time as the Zombie's fingers were ready to puncture his eyes out. But-
Right as it was about to connect, Marco's foot tripped on a rock and he fell forward, face-planting once again.
"Yearrr!" He cried, as his nose broke and his red stream of blood evolved into a red river of blood.
As his body collided into the ground, he crawled into a ball, hugging his legs and covering his head with his hands.
Darn it! You useless dimwit! You couldn't even get one of them!
Marco lamented himself for being weak, for understanding the vast difference between himself and a mere zombie. Because he was busy cursing himself, he completely failed to notice the swarm of Undead.
Some time passed by and he realized, the only pain he felt was from his face-plant.
Am I not dead yet?
He thought it was odd the Undead wasn't attacking him, so he was more surprised when he looked up and saw the swarm of Undead not moving.
The alley of death had become a traffic jam.
With no time to react, the first Zombie tripped and fell over Marco's body, crashing into the ground and at an angle where it's head tore off. However, it's a body covered Marco like a blanket. As the others tried to attack, they failed and only scraped at their fellow invader.
With each passing second, the Undead kept pushing forward and collided into each other, pressing their bodies together and eventually coming to a halt.
Skeletons that pushed against Zombies accidentally tore their heads off as they moved forward. Zombies that pushed against the Skeletons crushed their bones, crippling them in the process.
As Marco's eyes landed on the sight, he was left dumbstruck at the scene. The undead was still kicking, but their bodies were left unable to move onwards and kill him. He was at a loss for words about the brainless assault by the brainless assaulters.
"What. The. Actual. Fu-"
A loud bang from behind interrupted his words. When he turned around to see the incoming death from behind, he saw a small flame grow, lining the alley and space between bot walls. The row of fire trapped the undead and incinerated them as they stepped through the fire.
His eyes looked around to see how the flame started, thinking it was a spell; but he didn't hear anyone cast it. Marco's eyes fell to the ground and landed on the remains of shattered glass spread throughout the floor.
A Molotov Cocktail? Who threw it!?
Marco pushed the Zombie covering him off his body and used his hands to crawl up. When he stood up, he looked around to see if anyone was near, and heard a shout.
"Wait! Stop, there's someone down there!"
Hearing the noise, Marco instantly knew where to look. His eyes wandered up the walls and from high above the buildings, he could see ahead poking over the ledge.
"Huh? I checked and there was only undead down below." A second voice replied. It was deeper than the first one but more clear.
His eyes didn't leave the ledge and he saw a second head pop over the ledge, looking straight at him.
"Gignal, Are you sure he's not one of them?"
"I'm positive, I don't sense any negative energy coming off of him."
Both men on the ledge seemed to stand closer to the edge, appraising the situation where Marco stood… Or the alley of crippled undead to be exact. Gignal looked to his partner and saw the skepticism on his face that said: 'Did this kid do that?'
He let out a sigh. "If it makes you certain, I can cast a spell on him. If he doesn't turn to ash then it proves I'm right."
Gignal's partner, Bebei, nodded his head with approval. Gignal held onto the cross pendant hanging by his neck and started chanting words.
Marco, who couldn't hear their conversation, looked at the two men with eyes full of hope when he noticed the Mythril tags they wore.
M-Mythril! That's the highest rank this city has!
But, after his moment of awe, Marco heard the whisper of words grow louder. A Spell?
Confused, he looked around the area thinking there was more undead; but when he saw he was alone, he figured they were targeting him.
"w-W-wait! D-Don't attack!" He quickly shouted.
Marco raised his hands in the air and waved them drastically, attempting to get their attention.
"Huh? He talked?" Bebei asked, but it was too late.
"[Turn Undead]!"
Gignal didn't have time to react to his partner's words, and he cast his spell onto Marco. The simple Tier 2 spell released a light from Gignals cross that burst outwards and burnt all the bodies down below, including Marco.
The Zombies and Skeletons struggling to move were incinerated by the light, turning to ash and blowing away with the next wind. But nothing happened to Marco.
He was hit by the light, yet nothing hurt him. He didn't turn to ash, and he didn't feel any pain.
Marco was confused, but then the man spoke again.
"See, nothing happened."
Bebei wryly smiled, but he wasn't embarrassed. As a top-notch adventurer, he knew the fine line of life and death drawn by his job; he certainly wasn't going to die because he had been careless. And with the surprising onslaught, there was no better time to be overly cautious than now.
He reached over his back and took out a rope, dangling it down the side of the wall.
"Hey, Kid! We don't have all day! Climb up or we'll leave you behind!" He yelled.
Bebei's words cut Marco out of his stupor, and he hastily ran to the rope.
When Marco reached the roof, he had a better view of the city. The air was the same as before, but there was a denser stinge of death. Scoping the area around, he saw the streets flooded with monsters. Shops he ran by not too long ago were ablaze and collapsing as the monsters attacked anything and everything.
Feeling pressure on his shoulder, he instinctively reached to massage his neck. But his hands felt a leather glove.
"Don't think too deeply about it... There's nothing we could've done to prevent this, but that doesn't mean we can't do anything at all."
Getting a closer look at the man's face, Marco noticed the faint outline of a scar running down the side of his ear to the base of his neck. He guessed it went further down his shoulder or chest, but the man's clothes prevented him from checking.
"...T-thank you…" Marco whispered. Now that he was out of danger, he felt the reality sink in, and two tears rolled out of the corner of his eyes.
I-I… I… I almost died…
"It's too early to thank us yet, we still have ways to go before we get you to the safe area."
A shiver slithered down Marco's spine, knowing he wasn't in the clear yet.
"...Safe area?..."
"Yeah, we're gathering as many survivors as we can find at the Mayor's Residence in the city's center. It's not that far from here once we cross the inner wall… but I doubt many people are left out there." The second man said, joining in on their conversation.
"By the way, I'm Bebei, and this is Gignal." the first man said.
"Marco."
The two men nodded, knowing Marco didn't want to talk much. They saw the mess the boy was in, surrounded by undead from both sides, and not even they would favor a situation like that. Though they both had been at death's door before, none of them had been through it at such a young age.
"It's time to go," Bebei said. "Marco, we're gonna go and look for more people and try to take out as many undead as we can; but if you follow this row of buildings to the third wall, you'll run into a girl with long blonde hair wearing a blue mantle. That's our teammate, and she'll escort you to the Mayor's residence."
He didn't want them to leave him, being with them gave him a feeling of safety. But he knew that there could be others who needed their help more than him.
Marco nodded and watched as Gignal and Bebei continued onwards, running in the direction away from the third wall.
Taking once last glance at the city he grew up in, Marco took a deep breath and readied himself once more. He didn't regain a lot of his energy so he walked at a fast pace across the roofs. He had to climb some ledges and hop down to proceed forward, but he didn't have to jump over any large gaps.
Overall, the path was relatively safe, compared to the city.
Marco covered half the distance in a little less than an hour, and he reached a wall he couldn't climb. It was too high and his jump wasn't enough to reach it.
He struggled for a bit, and then looked around for another way up. When he looked over the edge, he saw the progress the undead made had nearly tripled what it had been when he last looked around. The majority of the city had been damaged and the streets were flooded, no street hadn't met the hands of those monsters.
"Need help there bud?" A soothing voice called out.
Marco looked up and saw a beautiful young girl. She matched the description Bebei gave him, but he assumed that since they were around their thirties, that their partner would be the same age.
How wrong he was.
At the oldest, the girl could pass for someone in her late twenties, but he doubted it.
"Y-yeah, could you give me a had. Bebei said I would come across you."
The girl looked around the area and then reached out her hand for him to grab.
"I'm Lars, nice to meet you." She said.
As she pulled him up, Marco noticed her hovering over the edge.
"...A magic caster?" He unconsciously asked.
"Yup!" Lars said proudly.
Though he didn't know much about magic, he did know that it took incredible skill and talent to fly. For someone her age to accomplish this, it was a feature deserving pride.
"We shouldn't take long here, so let's hurry up and get going." She said.
Lars flew through the air and scoped out the undead, casting spells to kill any that approached them.
Marco took mental notes of what she was doing, to learn anything useful for the future, and he noticed she only used the same spell repeatedly. He knew for a girl who could fly, she should know more than just [Magic Arrows], so he was confused.
"Why do you only use the same spell?" He asked. "For someone who can use [Fly], isn't there stronger ones you can use?"
"Good question… Let me ask you something, do you think you're the only person I have to help?"
Marco scratched his head, "What does that have to do with using the same spell?"
"Hehee, that's for you to figure out." Lars replied.
Although Marco had to run faster, to keep up with Lars, they made it to the wall and were scheduled to arrive at the Mayor's residence quicker than he thought they would.
Mayor's Residence
It was already nightfall when they reached the Mayor's Residence. Other than some Bone Vultures that tried to attack, there wasn't any other Undead that managed to initiate an attack on them.
They didn't enter through the gates like you normally would. Instead, they kept climbing the walls and reached a part where it dropped into the residence's garden.
Marco reached for a rope ladder that dropped down the side of the wall, and he climbed down it. When he looked to the front of the residence, he saw the main gate closed and blocked off with heavy furniture. Couches, tables, closets, and anything that weighed, was added to support the defenses.
Lars led the way into the Residence where Marco found himself speechless to the riches here. Of course, the Mayor of the city would be rich, but seeing the personal residence and all the luxuries was something else. Portraits of men lined up the hallway and servants rushed in and out, providing for the guests. This was something he wouldn't have ever seen in his life weren't it for the Invasion.
He entered a lobby and sat down with the rest of the people. One of the servants brought him a cup of water and some crackers to eat. Inside the waiting area, there were at least a couple hundred people here. Lars didn't bother to stay. She dropped Marco off and headed out again.
When she was about to leave, a man with brown hair approached her.
"Are you sure you can go back?" He asked.
"Mm." Lars nodded in response. "Who knows how much others are out there to."
The man sighed.
"Sorry we had to put you in this position, I wish I could help more."
"It's nothing to be sorry over. It's not like we could've prepared for this… and it's more than enough for you to keep helping the others."
The man nodded and Lars headed back out.
Marco watched the exchange of words, but couldn't hear anything. The man saw Marco's gaze and approached him, sitting down next to him.
"...so young…" he whispered under his breath.
"Are you the one Lars brought back?"
Marco nodded and pretended not to hear his earlier remark.
"Well, get used to this. Who knows how long we have to stay here. Once the priests check for any injuries and heal you, follow the crowd to where the Mayor will be. He'll instruct you on what's going on."
The man said his words and then left.
As he said, Marco was inspected by one of the priests and healed. He didn't have to pay, which was weird since he knew the priests only helped those who could afford it.
As he left the lobby, he followed the line of people to an inner garden, where there was a stage set up and a man sitting in a chair placed on it. When enough people gathered, the doors shut, and the man rose.
"Greetings citizens, I know this isn't a time of celebration for us, but be grateful that you were one of the few who survived this ordeal. You probably know me, but to make myself clear, I'm E-Rantel's mayor, Panosolei Gruze Day Ruttenmaier. As E-Rantel is under attack, we hired able-bodied adventurers and men to go out and look for any survivors. Children won't have to do anything, but we would like everyone else to help around here. There's much to do if we want to get through this together, and I know we can."
Panosolei wiped his forehead.
"For now though, you can follow the servants to whee you'll be staying. It might be a little crowded with everyone we have to take care of, but it's should be more than enough. After you've settled in, we'll ask for those who can help and give the tasks suitable for their skills tomorrow. For tonight, my servants and the people I've hired already will take care of most of the work. Rest up, because tomorrow's when we begin retaking our city."
As he ended his talk, the citizens applauded and thanked him for the least bit of hospitality. The servants entered the room and led the people to a giant area where tents were set up. Multiple families had to share, and Marco got paired up with a family of 5. A Single-mother and her 4 children occupied most of the space, while Marco took a corner for himself.
As he laid down, he closed his eyes toned out the children beside him as he recalled everything that occurred.
"...Are you guys somewhere out there…" he whispered, and let the night take him.
...