Chereads / Redemption: The Tale Of The Broken King / Chapter 6 - The Hammer of Dawn PT.2

Chapter 6 - The Hammer of Dawn PT.2

"Martin!", a new voice snapped, "Martin, I already told you she's not going to answer the fucking door."

"H-how would you know Jack?" The first voice from earlier, Martin I assume, shot back, "You and I both know how deaf the Captain was! So m-maybe she just didn't hear us yet." with just a small shake in his voice.

"Exactly my point! That's why I said we should've just jumped the blasted wall in the first place! That way I-nobody has to get tinnitus and it would save us all a lot of time." The second voice, Jack presumably, retorted with a tinge of anger and impatience in his voice.

"I get where the second guy's coming from." I said with a chuckle as I continued eavesdropping.

"UGH…Fine! If-if I don't get a response this time we'll do it your way." the first voice conceded. "You… you could've told me I was hurting your ears Jack." he continued, sounding a little dejected.

"Heh, nope, not my problem." I chuckled as I backed away from the wall and began walking back towards my house. "I doubt they'd actually hop the fence, if they even could, Castle law and all." I thought to myself, as I slid open my back door. I continued aloud, "Even if I lose a day of work-", then suddenly I sensed a massive concentration of mana being gathered.

I Immediately turned around to see a golden light radiating from the other side of the wall. "No way…", I quietly stammered when I saw that light across my courtyard, and soon I realized what he was planning. "This asshole is going to send the door flying off its hinges!" I stammered as I ran towards the door. "You are not throwing that into my house!" I screamed, as I slammed into the steel door with all I had. 

Thanks to the adrenaline, time seemed to move in slow motion. I could feel as the steel began to flex and fold on the point of impact, watching as the force rippled towards the outermost edges. Then as the ripple made its way towards the bolt, it sheared in two almost instantly. On the opposing side, the hinges tried to disperse the force as it swung the door outward to the right. However the hinges couldn't handle the force as they ripped themselves clean out of the wall. With nothing left to hold it in place the door shot away from me faster than I could react. I only managed to catch a glimpse of it as it narrowly missed the soldier wannabe. As I spotted it tumbling like a piece of crumpled paper hundreds of meters away.

On one hand I would be proud of that launch if Dad was still here and we were competing to see who could throw it further. I probably would have beaten both dad's and mine personal records this time. Yet on the other hand, Dad isn't here to play some game as we replace the door nor am I doing this for fun. Instead I am barely dodging a hyper charged fist intended for my now absent door, a fist that would have put said door through my house.

While time seemed to be standing still, I took in my surroundings. To my left there was a blonde haired brat keeling over as he's punching air, and in front of me there were two people… Well technically three if you included Jane hiding behind the dumpster.  Both of the soldiers were wearing heavy dressings over bloody and tattered GW uniforms. The further one looked to be human, with bandages around his torso and leg as he leaned on a crutch. The other one looked to be what Dad called a beastkin; a man with the attributes of a beast, but he looked to be in the worst condition. The beastkin looked like he was missing his left arm and right eye; he also had dressings over his torso and legs but he stood a few meters away without any support.

"This…This is starting to look harder and harder to fake… but there's no way anyone could stand in that condition." I thought to myself. As I continued my observations. 

They were standing in front of a dilapidated bullet riddled truck covered in mud and what was probably supposed to be blood. If it really was in the condition it looked like it was in, it would have been a miracle if it managed to move ten feet, much less 10,000 miles. Furthermore I didn't hear it arrive, but if those weren't fake… today's going to be a bad day. 

With time returning to normal, my eyes locked onto the kid stumbling in front of me. Just as he was about to collapse into the workshop, I grabbed him by the back of his jacket and threw him back from the entrance, half intending him to land on his backside. Yet he still landed on his feet with just a slight stagger. I now locked eyes with the dismayed boy, my anger now visible on my face. "I'll just scare these idiots off," I thought to myself.

"What are you jackasses doing?!" I furiously screamed at the trio of morons as I marched towards the blonde soldier wannabe. The lad stammered in an incoherent dialect while slightly backing away, before I grabbed his collar and ripped him from the ground and stared him in the eyes. The boy didn't even look 100 years old yet… there's no way this is real… 

To further my point his skin was spotless, untouched. There wasn't a single sign of any wound, large or small, despite his abdomen and left leg being exposed with only tatters surrounding them. I failed to understand why a few pranksters would even bother going through this much effort, if they wanted to piss me off all they had to do was throw stones. And on the off chance this was real why would they stop at my po-dunk village?

"Please let them be pranksters," I prayed to Negata in the back of my mind. As I tried my hardest to not let my worry come to the surface. "I mean there's no outpost around here right? so they can't be real…right?"

With a wrathful glare, I interrogated the weird mix-blood ather,  "Can you idiots even read? No less than that, can you even think?! If that landed you would've destroyed my house all for what? Some damn prank?!" I shrieked, with a pinch of rage permeating my voice. I slightly twisted his collar as I shook him. 

But before I could even begin my next sentence the beastkin shouted, "Oi you better let him go you dumb bitch!" as he drew his pistol with a glare. I slightly lowered the boy to get a better look at the situation, and as I made eye contact with the beastkin he pulled back the hammer. "Let the Lieutenant go this instant! I won't warn you again woman!" He threatened, while this "lieutenant" of his was frantically ranting as he stuttered out gibberish in response to his friend.

"Do you seriously think I'm going to be scared of a fucking pistol?" I asked while on the verge of laughing, "Even if it was a real gun the worst it could do is leave a welt!" I continued. Anyway there is no way in hell he's going to shoot at me while I've got his little buddy here, and he would have to aim cross eyed. I rolled my eyes at the man's threat; but then the boy glanced back and tried to pull me down for just a moment as the human yelled, "JACK, DON'T YOU DO IT!" as he tackled the beastkin and tried to wrench the weapon from his control. It was at that moment I noticed my cheek was wet, as warm blood ran down the side of my head. 

At that moment it hit me that… That wasn't a pistol, that was an OldHuman Spitglass. A real weapon… standard issue only to high class combat units which means this isn't a mere prank. These are real soldiers with real injuries with real news. Quickly I put the boy down on his feet as I ran towards the two fighting for the Spitglass. "This got really dangerous really quickly" I thought to myself.