Casper looked around, trying to absorb all the current situation. His mind went blank and he got shocked for some seconds.
"Put your god damn mind in order, soldier! Get up and do something! If you keep in shock and do nothing, bad things will happen!"
Because of the huge fall from before, all his body was aching and he got some cuts on his arms. His shirt was torn on the shoulder.
Even so, Casper got to his feet, gritting his teeth and feeling his body hot as hell.
Probably, adrenaline and dopamine were flowing uncontrollably through him, sharpening his senses and warming up the muscles. His heart was beating so fast that one could swear that Casper was having a heart attack.
The soldier drew his combat knife and checked if the sling was still there with him.
In a matter of seconds, he started to walk hastily, while glaring at the building he was on the roof before.
Now, it was nothing but ruins.
"That wasn't an attack made from the citizens. If it was, then a huge mistake happened..." He pondered while fastening the pace, almost to the point of jog. "Taking into account that the citizens didn't make it, then the people they are fighting with knows how to bite as well... And, hey! What a hell of a bite, huh?."
While the citizens were running furiously towards the castle, Casper did the opposite. He was trying to take a strategic position in an alley or inside a building. With everything that was going on, the best option was to get out of the turmoil and try to replanning things.
Anyways, it was not an easy task to accomplish. The space was big since it was the Main avenue, but there were plenty of people triggered, using different kinds of weapons, devices, and explosives, in a fierce march towards their goal.
He was running frantically, looking everywhere and trying to find somewhere good enough to hide.
While he was distracted, a loud sound echoed in front of him, making all his body falter. The soldier faced a huge vehicle going towards him at an alarming speed, crushing everything on the way.
"Crap!!" He jumped to the side with all his might, falling on the ground and getting up as fast as he could. The vehicle kept rushing. There were people above it, with assault rifles and pistols, firing randomly in front. Also, one of them was with a sort of energy cannon replacing the left arm, which had a very poor and humble look, but still, it worked very well.
Some of the citizens were being smashed by that vehicle, and not only that, but most of the other vehicles were doing the same, as though their drivers were drunk, or maniacs.
Casper did not waste any more time and started to run again. Behind him, something like a confrontation was happening. The people around ran and fired more crazily than before.
In despair, he kept focusing on his legs, one after another, running like an Olympic athlete. His breathing was heavy and he felt like he was running for hours.
"I don't know if the strong smell of gunpowder and burnt things is dropping my aerobic capability or my body suffered more than I thought in that fall... But I am running out of gas more quickly than I usually would." He took into consideration all the way he ran until getting to the Main avenue as well, which had worn him out pretty much.
He tried his best to get out of the Line of Fire before it gets a generalized warzone without somewhere to hide. But the number of people shooting increased, and soon the line of fire was already behind, in front, and around Casper.
"Damn it! The conflict spread faster than I imagined! With this many people firing and rushing straightforward, I thought that the 'enemy' would take longer to break through the raid."
Bullets were flying in all directions. Different kinds of grenades exploded nearly. A lot of machinery and technologies that he had never seen before were doing huge destruction too.
Casper's body started to be cut everywhere from wreckage launched by explosions and stray bullets scratching him.
A grenade came sliding on the floor towards Casper. Although his mind was in a rush, he kept his coolness.
Coldly, he calculated the timing and kicked the grenade just when it was about to settle on his side. The explosion happened some seconds before, followed by screams and more wreckage as fast as bullets cutting through the air. That destructive power was not something that a common grenade should do, particularly the waves of electricity it left in the range of the explosion.
A dense smoke formed around that part of the street as well, and at a strange speed. He saw that someone's device made it.
Casper did his best to control his breath to not inhale it and waited until he got out of that cloud of smoke.
Just when he did, he was faced directly with a citizen, who turned to him startled and pointed the gun barrel at him.
It was a strange version of an assault rifle called AR-15. It had modifications in certain parts and Casper felt that the gun was way above the power of an AR-15.
The time seemed to slow down. For just a second, the thought came: "I will die..."
The citizen put his finger on the trigger of the gun and exerted some strength, pulling it.
"But... that's why I need to do it!" Casper launched his arm towards him. He put so much explosion in the movement, that his shoulder seemed to have dislocated.
He pushed the gun barrel downwards, while it started firing crazily, its recoil almost making the citizen lost control of the gun.
Casper widened his eyes, looking intensely at the citizen's throat, and stabbed his combat knife into it; he pulled the knife back quickly, and then stabbed once again, but in the neck this time.
He thought for a moment about take the rifle with him, but he could not lose more time into the line of fire.
The soldier started to run again and finally could find an opening through the confrontation, jumping into a building and lying on the floor to avoid any chance of being shot inside there.
He let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding and closed his eyes for eight seconds.
In those eight seconds, he focused, doing a breathing technique to calm down his nerves and reacquire his ability to make clear decisions.
He got up once again, crouching. Then, sneaked to the closest window, looking outside.
Now, he could see better who were those guys fighting against the citizens.
They wore a uniform very similar to the city's guards, but those seemed more stiff and well made. Casper did not know which materials were used to do those uniforms, but he was sure they were high-quality ones.
The uniform was grey and blue, and some fur detailed specific parts. In the chest, was a symbol of a silver castle and a mask.
They carried with them a double-edged battle-ax on their backs. Like the ones the ordinary city guards had, those looked to be made not just of good forging, but technology as well.
To Casper, they looked very similar to clothes that Nordic warriors would use, but with some extra technology.
The guards were in a fierce battle with the citizens. They were far more skilled and tactically smarter, but the others were in greater numbers and had the surprise element and initiative in their favor.
Because of it, incredibly, the battle was even, at least for the time being.
"Well, whoever wins or loses, I don't care. I just want to get out of this alive and in a good state."
Casper knew that he had messed up and put himself into trouble without the need to. Although he had not expected to be in such huge trouble, it was still a reckless decision to have had kept going on.
"Well, it's not like I had somewhere else to go. This was the most promising place that I could found. Besides, that castle was really an issue to take into consideration. And now I have an idea of how chaotic this folk is."
Anyways, no matter how many excuses he had, overthink the past was just another pointless thing to him.
He persisted in peek through the window and waited patiently to see how things would go outside and which route he needed to go to get out of that mess.
The battle was at its peak. Now, the confrontation was not just in the main avenue anymore. The armed citizens were spreading, getting out of there and going to other streets and buildings around.
Most of the guards remained in the avenue. They took just some time to take control of it, pressing the others and making them take the defensive.
A low number of them chased after the citizens spreading around, gathering themselves in small organized groups and following carefully, but hastily.
"Hmmm, I see that they are very well trained. Well, even a blind man could see that the citizens were making a plan to separate them and overwhelm the troops with numbers and territory advantage.
"The most efficient and prudent decision was to keep defending the main goal and letting just a small part chasing them."
But, somehow, that situation looked even worse than the previous one, when Casper thought of another point.
"The citizens were all well-organized until now... A desperate retreat doesn't fit the situation here... In the worst-case scenario, the decision the guards made was just another predicted and countered movement..." Then, something popped into Casper's head, which made him widening his eyes.
"They had taken three guard's buildings until now, leaving the whole part of the city that were under their protection completely vulnerable. Anyways, it would cost fewer people and preparation taking just the building that was more closer to the castle, if the intention was making a quick and destructive Raid...
"It means that it was not the intention at all. They were planning to make all this piece of the city on a whole battlefield! The Main avenue was just the start. The castle was out of reach anyway. All they wanted was to cause more and more ruckus and bring the guard's attention to... to them... That is, distracting them, so a second part might be able to attack the castle instead! A group acting outside this region!"
Casper never worried about who was the right or wrong side, nor the winner or loser... until that point.
Now that he was obliged to live in that place until he could find his way home, he wished he could, at least, be in a city where everything was not plunged into chaos and destruction. The more peaceful it remained, the better for him.
While he was absorbed in his thoughts, the soldier felt the ground trembling, then the left whole wall of the construction he was in turned into pieces of metal and stone.
Casper jumped through the window as fast as he could, just to see afterward a whole enormous vehicle tucked inside the structure, that was now collapsing little by little.
"Crap!" A bullet passed buzzing near him and Casper ducked and covered behind a machinery that was no longer moving.
More shots could be heard bouncing on the metallic housing of the machinery. Someone was aiming at him.
Casper gulped, then picked up his sling and prepared it. Carefully, he sneaked crouching around the machinery, circling it and peeking at the other side. The guard seeking him was circling in the same direction, with his back turned to him.
The soldier got more closer, spinning the sling without even blinking. When he was at a reasonable distance he cleared his throat out loud, making the guard turn around. At the same time, a metallic sphere considerably heavy flew towards his throat, hitting it and breaking his windpipe.
The guard fell on the floor and started to agonize, because of the pain and the fact that he no longer could breathe.
Casper's eyes turned to the front again, without even waiting to confirm the death. He rolled forward at the same time as a burst of shots came in his direction.
Without hesitation, he got up on his feet and threw fluidly his combat knife, hitting the citizen who shot him right on the left eye, making him crying in pain.
"I love that knife, but it's not the time for zeal or fondness now."
The soldier started to run again, with his energy mostly restored.
"The citizens are being badly pushed here, but that's not the point. When the guards clear the way here, they will surely make a mass chasing after the remaining group. When they put their feet out of the Main avenue, it will be the same as a mouse stepping on a mousetrap."
Casper rushed to a street that could serve as an exit from the Main avenue. While he did, a storm of bullets, rays, and static came at once, targeting him and whoever else around.
With a last effort, he stepped in, throwing himself into a street, and kept running until the bullets and other deadly projectiles could not reach him anymore.
"I don't know how far I will need to go into it now... But I need to stop these citizens. This city means nothing to me, but now it's a matter of life or death!"
Then, he kept running more and more deeply into the maze-like streets of the city.