Chapter 3 Part 2 New Directives.

Chernobog Outer Region,

Near the Ursus-Yen Western Border,

Around 40km from Great Lungmen.

The sky darkens as night began to fall onto the region. The the vast plains and wastelands told the tales of the old where knights and armies marched forward across the lands fighting for the glory of their nations. The scars of battles and its remains stood against the time as rubble of past settlements left abandoned in this desolate region that warns the future descendants of consequences of chasing blind glory.

History again proved to mankind, the moment you ignore the past, you are deemed to repeat them back, intentionally or not.

Down the ruins of old, a young man moved along the rubble of an old fort. His eyes focus on, unwavered with beasts lurking in the darkness. His body remains firm and alert of his surroundings, watching, listening to any foreign sounds that could proved to be a threat to him as his hands held a modern day compound crossbow, fully kitted for his needs should battle came to him. His dark winter outfit concealed his silhouette in the dark night with a black beanie hat covered his head, protecting him from the scathing cold of the night winter.

Indeed, much as his appearance is common for highlanders and roaming bandits across these wastelands. There were quite distinct features that separate him from others.

A tactical bag comfortably saddled on his back, similar to the common ones used in the forsaken frontier but with a fairly sized brick-like object attached to it. Nevertheless, the main prize was the contents in his bag that currently carried with him.

Night has befall the ruins, the man then continued to move as fast as humanely possible without compromising his security. Later, he has arrived to his destination.

An abandoned hut right in a middle of nowhere.

He slowed down his pace and walked to the front door. The bag on his back was adjusted a bit as he cautiously moved to the front door. Silently, he raised his left hand and prepared his crossbow on the right expecting action. Then, came the knock with particular sound patterns.

A slow two knocks, a pause and another two knocks.

He waited for a while and the door slowly creaks open. A small silhouette peeped through the gap.

" Mr. Mason? " a young small voice called the stranger.

The man glanced at her and replied, " Yes, Misha. Its me. "

The door then pulled open, revealing the huts inhabitant, or in this case, inhabitants.

A group of five children sitting on the floor of the hut, resting around a small campfire made prior of their stay in the abandoned hut. Two boys and three girls, the oldest of the group is a young teenage Ursus girl with a white hair, standing at the front door facing him. Their apparel were shown to be damaged and stained with dirt akin to street kids in urban slums. Still, even with their poor clothing, their eyes were lively and youthful when they saw the man before him.

" Mr. Mason came back! "

" Mister, what you get today? "

" Did you find more food, mister? "

Mason was immediately hit with barrage of questions. He gave them a big smile and move into the hut, lowered his guard for a bit.

He has been hunting some wild games in the vicinity of the forest with successful hunt of hare-like beasts. These little devils were hard to catch but with patience and wits, he managed to hunt down four adult size games with his crossbow for the food and the pelts he gained as he has future plans for them. The compound crossbow on his hands was put aside as he closed the door.

The bag he was carrying was slung off his back and proceed to bring out the contents in it. The children watched in fascination of what he was going to show them. He brought out the hare-like animals one by one as they were given to Misha to be skinned and cleaned off with water from the creek next to the hut.

" Thank you, Mr. Mason." Misha thanked him. " There are good amount of meat you brought today. Where did you hunt them? "

" Next to the old ruins. I found some of them moving around their burrows." He arranged back his Tac-Bag and put them aside.

The children were also listening to the man's story of his today's hunt. They were fascinated with some of his adventurous tales he had shared prior of his encounter with these unfortunate children few days ago.

Smiling, he told the children around him with a story teller tone, " So, I took the time waiting for them to move a bit far and then- PSHEW!" He then pointed his fingers with pistol gestures to the wall.

" GOT'TEM! "

The children laughed at his posture and was enthralled with his story telling skill as he shared his encounters during today's hunt.

The laughter was infectious as even Misha who was preparing the meat for cooking chuckles at the man's antics with the children.

For her and the children, Mason was a godsend to them. Few days ago, the refugee caravan was moving from the refugee camps outside the fallen city of Chernobog. She and the children under her care were separated from the caravan they was attached to because of a sudden raid from bandit groups during their travel to the Greater Lungmen.

The raid was thwarted by the caravan guards protecting the refugees. Unfortunately, during the fight they had forgotten of her and the children as they conducted emergency evacuation during the night and proceed to continue moving towards Lungmen. They were forgotten during the midst of battle and evacuation which Misha tried her best to protect the children under her care. Thus she had to enter the deeper parts of the forest with the children and then realized moments later, they had lost in the forest.

She had to take another route away and then stumbled upon the man she now consider as their guardian before they reached Lungmen. Their first encounter was terrifying as she thought Mason was one of the bandits attacking the caravan. Fortunately, he did not do anything wrong and aided them to their journey to the city. Hours later, she guided him back to the last caravan's location and found out they had moved on from the camping site, completely abandoned them.

Unperturbed of the situation, Mason gave his assistance without any strings attached. Surprisingly, he also wanted to go to Lungmen. He shared that some of his friends may be inside the city now and he needed to find them.

With the sudden aid from a kind stranger, Misha and the children managed to scavenged some clothes, survived canned food and and water bottles for their journey to the mobile city. They even found the map for them to use but unfortunately only Mason could read the maps properly compared to them.

This eases their journey to as Mason could easily interact with children throughout the hike as he shared some of his adventures with his friends.

One of the tall tales he shared during the hike was of a raid on a massive abandoned iron forge controlled by bands of bandits. He and seven of his friends caused massive battle against the bandits and managed to take down their massive cannon, the one used to threaten some of the settlements within the cannon's range.

Misha wanted to keep the story as some tall tales by the wandering stranger but he shared his story as if he really fought on against the said bandit clan. He shared how his team members moved in positions to retaliate one of the leaders of the group inside a massive steelworks, battled flame-throwing foot soldiers that scavenged the steelworks, setting up traps and ambushes to the bandits and even engaged the leader of the bandit clan in close combat while he and some of his members used explosive bolts and grenades to stun him giving other chance to finish the leader off.

Nevertheless, his stories uplifted their spirit to push on their journey to Lungmen City. According to Mason, they are now one day away from the closest Yen border checkpoint. The checkpoint would be the best for them to continue on but Mason told them to get some rest. It would not be beneficial for all of them to move as the day darkens.

Thanks to the hunts gathered by Mason, she could prepared basic cooked meals for all of them and have some reserves for tomorrow journey.

'Rung, rung, rung…'

Then, she heard a ringing came from one of the makeshift bells made by Mason.

One moment it was cheerful atmosphere then suddenly changed to tense. Misha stopped her current work and moved to the children around the campfire, attempting to protect them.

Mason's stopped his tales and immediately reached his crossbow. His cheery expression changed to cold and calculating one as he stand next to one of the windows next to the front door, deliberately picked up his bag and quickly put it on his back. Silently, he gave them as shush signal with his left hand.

He took a little peek outside.

Suddenly, a bright light suddenly shone through the windows and door slits. The light was so bright to the point Mason could not see the outsiders. Moments later, a speaker boomed in the night.

" This is Yen Border Security! You are now surrounded! Put down you arms and surrender! " The loud speaker

" I will surrender, if you REALLY are YBG teams. " Mason replied, preparing his crossbow for the confrontation.

Moments later, another man responded back to Mason through the speaker.

" Sir, this is Chief Sergeant III Lee Jian of 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company of 133rd Border Guard Battalion. My service number is WTZ29300469. " he paused for a while and continued. " Sir, you are now trespassing the border of Great Yen. Surrender, and we will treat you fairly according to the Common Laws of Yen. "

" I would like to ask you now sir, do you have five or six children with you?" Sgt. Jian asked through the speaker.

Mason looked back at Misha and silently asked her permission, " Need to reply that? "

Misha reassured the children that clung to her to stay calm. They were terrified and stayed close to her as Mason prepared for possible battle.

Misha nodded her head. " Yes, I think you should follow them. "

" Big Sis, I'm scared." said a feline girl.

" Don't worry, Mr. Mason will get through this. I know he will." Misha reassured her as she glanced at the man before her.

Mason thought for a moment, he stared at Misha and the young children around her. They were clearly scared with sudden confrontation, uncertain what will happen next.

Worried of their safety, Mason had made up his mind and made a gamble with fate.

Minutes of tense silence, the door opened and Mason slowly walked out to the open. The crossbow he had with him was put down slowly on the ground and then Mason backing up from the crossbow, raised both of his hands up.

The intense luminous light dimmed to acceptable level for Mason to look at the supposed leader of the group that surrounded his refuge.

The sergeant were clearly armed to the teeth thanks to the amount of gears he was packing. His uniform were similar to his subordinates but with some distinctions that show his status as the leader of the group. He even had crossbowmen and archers surrounding him with intent of poking him with bolts and arrows should he did any threats to them.

He then approached by two Yen guards to his sides and cuffed his hands behind his back.

Mason did not retaliate of the actions but his heart also relieved that the children and Misha was attended by another Yen soldiers.

" You did great son. They are safe now." the soldier next to him said. " Don't worry, this is just protocol. After this, you are going to be released."

The old weary voice told Mason that these men that currently apprehending him are veteran units.

He nodded his head. At least they are in the Yen's hands now, away from the wilds and darkness lurking the forest. Those beasts he had fought were eerie enough that he would rather face bandits again in the wildlands.

Unaware of the others, Mason noticed that his watch weakly vibrated behind his back. The brick like object on his bag were suddenly turned on and glowed orange. They became active.

Mason sights then sharpens with new texts forming before him and a new voice intervene. A voice he was familiar during his time in a certain adventure.

[ ISAC is now Online ]

[ Directive 51 Activated ]

[Welcome back Agent Mason Rackham]

' Glad to have you back buddy '. Mason then smiled at the soldier next to him and replied.

" Yeah, that's what a survivalist will do sir."