Do you ever get that feeling when you wake up from your bed, that something is completely wrong? Like before you even open your eyes, you know that todays gonna be a bad day. Your numb from something you did the day before, your head hurts, and you feel completely drained like you didn't sleep well. Yeah that's how I feel right now, and on top of that, there is a rock digging into my lower back, which begs the question, why is there a rock in my bed? Well, the answer to that is quite simple really, I'm not in my bed at all.
Opening my eyes, I'm greeted by a nice dark blue sky, somewhat cloudy, and by the look of it, the edge of a roof, since I'm lying on my back and all. I take a moment to consider why I'm on the ground, and coming up with nothing, I sit up, groaning along the way. And I subsequently decide I might be fucked, why? Simple, I live in the somewhat pleasant ghetto of Riverside, and I know damn well the closest grassfield to me is a bunch of yellow grass on hills (Great place to walk with dogs) not a fucken large ass field with green vibrant grass, and the occasional tree. I take a moment to appreciate the sight before getting up and stretching my body, feeling about as well as you would expect, sleeping on the ground. Patting myself down, I find out i'm not wearing my pjs (Just my boxers really, too warm for much else) and I'm in my work jeans, a basic gray t-shirt, and my work boots, and the only thing I had in my pockets were my cassette player, earbuds, a switchblade, and my little greenish gray UNSC bandanna (Represent my boy MC). Taking a monet to tie my band around my wrist, I turn around and am greeted by a stone wall, the ones you see in old ass europe towns. I simply walk around the building, through a small alley that had a little cat napping (Since im not rude, i left the cat alone) and when i walked out, realised I was more fucked than i thought. See I enjoy my fair share of anime and games, though i prefer reading books than watching anime honestly, and because of that I know a few things, such as when writing looks completely made up to standout, and even though then writing is fucking bonkers, they tend to keep the language the same (called something else). Now what I'm looking at right now are villagers walking around, getting last minute things before the sun sets, all acting completely normal, besides a person or two looking my way. And while I can no way tell you what the signs say, I can completely understand what they are saying.
"Son of a bitch". Are the first words that come out of me, to the surprise of a woman walking next to me. "Watch your tongue!" says the woman, before huffing and continuing on. "Sorry" I say out of habit, before I snap out of it and call out to her, taking a few strides towards her "Wait, ma'am, I need to ask you something" she stops and turns towards me giving me a look. "Sorry, about what I said, I just realized I was lost, you, first time here, and well, I could use some directions, please." Her face softens, a tad bit, though still looks mildly annoyed, she tells me where the tavern is and continues on. Seeing as I had no other thing to do, I head the way she pointed, observing the town as I walked. All things considered, it seems to be doing pretty good for itself (As far as my knowledge on towns go) but the people seem on edge, women hurrying with their chores, men having hushed conversations with neighbors, children seeming more muted than they should be. Before long, I see the building, on the sign there's a scratched mug with letters I don't understand, but the image says more than enough. Walking in, there's surprisingly no one in there, besides the man behind a counter, sharpening a blade (because that's welcoming). He looks up from his task, and places his blade down, but still very much in reach. "Evening stranger, what brings you here?" I walk towards the counter, taking a seat, "Just wandered into town, but i've been robbed along my way, lucky to keep the clothes on me, and i could use a job if you have one" He raises his brow when i mention being robbed, and taking a moment to consider me i guess, he turns around and fill a mug, before handing it to me. Saying my thanks after a moment of surprise (What a nice guy) I take a sip, and surprisingly, it tastes like honey and berries, with a slight kick of pepper. "This is, really good, your own recipe?"
"Yeah, your lucky to be the first to try it, I've had no customers today, towns on edge, look like you a bit of muscle on you so, help me move some supplies and you'll have room and food for the night'' Well, that solves that, but now i'm on edge. "Why would the entire town need to be worried? Also my names Al."
"Geoff, and what else is there to be worried about, we have word of bandits nearby, and we don't have many fighters" God damn it, I just got here, wherever here is, and now there's bandits? Yeah, whatever brought me here just doesn't like me. I drink some more, taking a moment to consider things, but before I can respond, we hear noises from outside, before someone al;l but slams the door open, some young guy.
"Geoff! Bandits to the north they're making their way towards the center!" He runs off, presumably to tell more people, Geoff reaches below the counter, grabbing some light armor he had there i guess. "This isn't your fight Al, But i would like to ask you anyway, can you help my town?" I take a moment to chug the rest of my drink (Shame, I was really enjoying it) before I slam it down, wiping my mouth. "Gimme something to fight with, and ill be by your side" I really don't have anything to do anyway.
Geoff grins madly, before reaching down and grabs a semi spiked mace thing and handing it to me. "Welcome words friend, if we survive today, Drinks for you are free for life." Grabbing the mace, I stand and test swing it, having plenty of experience from my construction gig with hammers. "Best weapon you could have given me. Now I'll follow you, don't have a clue what this village looks like." He hops the counter and grabs his sword before making his way towards the door. "All the villagers know to board themselves in the church, which is in the center, we make our way there, killing any bastard that tries to harm my home." Simple stuff, which is good cause I'm starting to get jitters.
Nodding, I follow him out the door, greeted with now audible screams and cries, and to the north (I guess) is smoke from fires. Geoff clasps my shoulder, "The church is the tallest building here" He points towards a spire to the left of us, "Should we be separated, make your way there, should we be overrun, the people know to run to the west, now we go!" He takes off, jogging towards the fires, and I follow, getting more jittery the closer we get.
Before long (Village isn't that big) I hear sounds of steel on steel, and Geoff hearing the same, veers towards it. Passing 2 or 3 houses, I can finally see the young guy from earlier, fending off 2 people at the same time (Bro is Him) but is losing, from the red on the side of his shirt. I flip out my knife, holding the mace with one hand, I throw the blade at a guy wearing no shirt, and lucky manage to land the hit, giving the Young guy a chance to finish him, and Geoff just straight up tackles the other guy, before stabbing him in the neck with a dagger? Not sure where he pulled that from, but I'm not complaining.
"Geoff! Glad you came, an archer nicked me earlier and these two were hounding me." I walk up and grab my knife from the shirtless guy (Thing cost me like two hundred bucks!), and wipe it on his fur shoulder pauldrons, then take a bag of gold he had, with some weird bluish white flask in it. I walk up to the two of them talking. "...How many are we up against?" Geoff asks. "From what I saw, they had about 20-25 guys, I took down two of them, saw the body of another, and counting these 2, there's at least five dead." The guy replies, before looking at me. "Who's your friend?" Geoff gestures to me, "This is Al, he wandered in town earlier in the day, and agreed to help defend. Al, this is Jr, son of a retired soldier" Jr, shakes my hand. "Any man who helps us is a friend to me and mine, thanks for the assist." I wave off the thanks before raising the flask I found. "No problem, and I found this on the naked guy, any idea what this is?" Jr grabs it, before taking a gulp of the liquid, emptying about a third of it. "This is a vulanery, a sort of all in one health drink, it's good at healing any cut, and stops bleeding from the bigger ones." He raises his shirt, and sure enough, that wound he has semi closed up, and isn't leaking any more. A bonafide health potion, nice.
He hands it back to me, and I place it in my pocket. Geoff takes a moment to think before giving us instruction. "Alright, from here we head to the center, if we split up, we are likely to be picked off. Henry should be there already, so with the support of our own archer, we stand a chance against their number. Let's go" He takes off, with me and Jr following after him, and on our way we pass a few bodies, most of them being civillions, Jr and Geoff both mutter curses along the way, I just keep track of the numbers, 7 dead villagers, 2 dead bandits. Once again nearing the center, we hear clashing steel ahead of us, what sounds like an actual brawl, and a scream from a woman behind us, Jr stops and turns. "I'll go back for the girl, you two help the center '' Geoff continues on, not really acknowledging Jr, I just give him a thumbs up (Hopefully it's a gesture here as well) and continue following Geoff. And we make it to a fork in the road.
Geoff takes a moment to catch his breath, before gesturing to the two paths. "To the left leads to the path to the church, that way we'll meet up with our allies, but to the right likely leads to the bandits side of the battle." I take some breaths, and gesture to the left before saying my opinion, "You should go that way, your guys could use the help and a boost to their spirit, but I'll go to the right and flank the back." Geoff takes moment to think, and nods, agreeing with me, "I'd prefer you to come with me, but you're right to attack their backs, I wish you luck." I give him a clap on the back before running down the path, and the closer I get, the louder the sounds of battle, and shortly I could hear the actual words being yelled. "Kill these ylissean rats! Archer land your arrows ya daft bastard!" And I got my target now.
I round a bend and am greeted by the sight of the battle, lots of bodies strewn about, most of them villagers, but I count 4 dead bandits, 3 of them with arrows in their bodies. I look around, noticing their leader standing behind the main group, pointing towards what looks like Geoff before turning his head towards a wagon and yells, "Hit their leader! He goes down, we can push into their church and burn those inside like the vermin they are!" he joins the fight, and looking where he looked I can see the archer begin to load his bow. Luckily, he is close to my spot so I sprint towards him, and the noise of battle hides my steps. Right as he draws the arrow, I manage to grab his leg, and pull him off the cart, he still fires his shot, more in surprise than anything, but it hits a bandit. He yells on the ground, but I silence him with a nice stomp on his head, and when you weigh as much as I do (324 pounds last I checked) with more muscles than fat, that is a fatal move.
I hear yells, and look up to see a few bandits head my way, which is bad. One of them goes down to an arrow, which is good, but still leaves me against two, so still bad. "You Bastard, sneak behind like a rat will you!" one of them says, holding a sword. The other, hefting an axe, just charges at me, yelling too. He swings wildly, and I manage to dodge it. The swing is easily the most telegraphed thing, rather than charge wildly like his friend, the sword guy begins walking to the right of me, going for a back shot. I decide to walk to the left of me, getting my back against the wagon. Axe guy does an overhead swing, yelling still. I dodge to the right and twist my upper body, he gets his axe stuck in the wagon and I swing my mace from the ground up, using the twist of my body to give it more force, and it nails him, sending him a few feet away, not dead on the spot, but yet much dying. I hear a yell behind me and I just manage to raise the shaft of the mace to catch a blade, the sword guy making his move. He pushes the blade down on me, before raising to swing again, but I kick his leg, making him stumble. Then I get ready to swing the mace again, but rather than swinging it I jab the bottom of the shaft into his stomach, the bottom being pointed, then I pull it out and commit to the swing finishing him off. I take a moment to breathe and look to the battle line, and even with my help, the bandits still outnumber the villagers, and are soon to break the line, and I see Geoff fighting the leader, holding his own, but losing ground to the massive man. "Fucken aye, fuck it." taking a note of the axe guy, I rush the battle line. "ORALE PUTAS" I yell to catch the attention of the bandits, to give the villagers an opening. And then it's just combat.
I overhead swing on a guy, smashing his back in, then get slashed on my arm by a dagger, a shoulder bash the bastard, jabbing the shaft into his chest, and swing backwards to a different guy, but its blocked, still floors the guy, and looking towards the dagger fuck (clutching his wound) I punch him and single hand swing into his side, marking him as dead more or less. I hear a thump behind me, and a man falls with an arrow to his head. 2 villagers still went down though, leaving me and two others against 7. I back up to the 2 and we manage to hold the 7 off, though I take another slash to my chest this time, when an axe slams my mace down. I hear behind me, from the church spire a man yells. "I'm out, fall back!" which means we don't have archer support. We slowly make our way back, to the doors of the church, and I see Geoff attempt to block a swing form the Leader, but gets launched a few meters, and he doesn't get up. Some villagers from inside the church begin throwing whatever they can to help the three of them, but one of them gets stabbed in the chest. He manages to trade and stabs the bandit in his head, but with a sword in him he gets taken out by an axe.
Two of us fending six Bandits, with the occasional object hitting the bandits. A rock nails the bandit in front of me, blinding his eye and I slam my mace into his head from the side, throwing his body into another bandit and they topple down, knocking them and a third one down. "Now or Never!" I yell and rather than continuing to fall back, we push forward, taking down two more of them before the three get up, and we tag team the last one on his feet, killing him as well. Before we could finish the last three, the bandit leader finally joined the fight by throwing a hand axe at my last ally, nailing his arm. "You couldn't kill a few villagers?! You're scum no more than what's beneath my boot." He says, walking casually towards me. "Get inside the church!" I yell at the last villager, and he grunts, before turning around and running for it.
"Oh no you don't." The leader grabs another small axe from his back, and prepares to throw it. I yelled and rushed him before he could throw it, but he expected it and from his position to throw the axe, chops swiftly down at me. I manage to block it, but I'm almost thrown to the floor from the force of it. Instead I slide back a few feet, telling me what I need to know. "I'm so fucked." I mutter, this guy is way stronger than any I've ever met. If the normal bandits could be compared to the villagers, I'd say the villagers have an advantage in training, but there were just too many bandits for them. However this guy is a fucken Beast. And the fuckers still alive are getting up, so now its a four vs one scenario.
"Don't interfere" the big guy says, "I'll be the one to kill him" And isn't that fucked, I'm in a whole new world from what I understand and I'm going to die. Well, might as well throw the first move. I swing from the left and he blocks it, which I expected, so I throw a kick to his shin and it lands. But he shoves me off and I stumble back. "You're not bad, that swing almost made me flinch. And the kick to my shin, oh, that one hurt." He says, absentmindedly rubbing where I kicked. Not even worried about any move I make. "Here, let me show you what a real swing looks like." and he fucken swung a fast overhead on me, I raised the mace and caught it, but I almost crumple under the force, and if it wasn't for the fact i caught the axe on its shaft, I know that would've cut the mace and me in half. "FUCK" I yell, and rather than pull back and swing, he continues to push down forcing me lower, while the axe head inches closer to me. "HAHAHA, YES C'MON, STRUGGLE '' Bastards annoying me, but I really can't push it back. And in my desperation, something clicks in my head, and I feel something in my body, and suddenly I just follow instinct. "AGHHH" I yell and manage to shove him to the side.
He stumbles to the side, yelling in surprise, while I catch my footing. "Bastard, just you -AGH" before he does anything, I slam my foot down and a small pillar of earth pushes up below his foot, making him almost topple in surprise. Then I swing with all my effort, sure to kill him in one go. "FUCK OFF-GAgH" Pure pain is what i feel, one the bastards on the side of me stabbed my back, literally., and I fell to my knees. "Woo, huh, Almost got me there ya cunt." The Leader says, smiling back on his face. "I knew you cunts were useful after all!" He says some more stuff but honestly I'm more interested in the sword sticking out from my stomach area. I guess I'm just dead? Kinda sucks. Cause I really don't want to die, and I think I'm crying? Hard to tell.
I look up, still not listening to the Leader and by the looks of it he's about to execute me, he has his axe all the way up. About to swing it down on my head, and this time it will cleave me in half.
I, uh, really don't want to die. So I close my eyes and hope it's a dream, trying to ignore the pain, telling myself it's not real.
I'm sorry Mama, creo que no voy a ir a tu feliz cumpleaños.
"THUNDER"