[1 month later]
(Bryan Gale)
"Don't worry, I'll be back in a few hours."
As I said my goodbyes to the old wooden shack and closed its door, it responded with a subtle creaking noise that slowly echoed between the trees.
'Although I am already used to living in solitude, it feels much more boring after having experienced living in a city on Earth. Besides, I should probably get more information on the situation, as it does involve the whole world, and maybe even more.'
'Since a month ago, I would always spot a few demons roaming around the forest, but it stopped just a few days ago. Have the demons given up, or is there something important happening? I also want to try some new food again. Ever since I've eaten in a restaurant, all the canned or homemade stuff tastes incredibly bland.'
When I finally got out of the forest and reached the edge of the city, I saw something unexpected.
Gigantic craters that bore into the earth, huge fires that reached the clouds and an immense amount of rubble scattered on the ground... or so I expected.
What I actually saw was a peaceful city with no notable signs of destruction. Although it had a bit more of an abandoned feeling than what I remembered, I could still spot a few humans walking around.
'Well... I guess this is a pleasant surprise. Where are all the demons that I expected to see?'
I walked through the city and observed the surroundings, searching for any clues that could explain the lack of demons.
After walking through a dozen streets, I went back to my strategy of just asking someone.
I walked towards a boy who looked like he was around my age. He had spiky, blond hair and friendly green eyes.
"Hello sir. I've been holed up in my bunker for a month and today was the first time I came outside to check out the situation. May I ask what happened here while I was underground?"
The boy looked at me with an amiable smile and said:
"It's not a problem at all! It makes sense that you don't know the situation if you haven't gone outside in a while. The demons were still around just a week ago, but suddenly a group of humans from the same world as the demons got transported to America and helped push the demons back a bit. It's still not that safe though, so I suggest you stay inside as long as possible. Also, you don't have to talk so respectfully to me. I just turned 20 and I don't think our age gap is that large."
"Alright, I'll do as you say. Thanks for the information, you've been a great help."
"It's fine. I had extra time anyway, so explaining a bit wasn't a problem. Goodbye!"
The cheerful boy left with a bright smile on his face, while I stood still for a few seconds to think about the information that I just got.
'So another group of people suddenly appeared here, but they are helping us this time. Since they are from the same world, I assume that they were already enemies in that world. If we're lucky, then they should be around the same level of strength as the demon army, but I don't think they would send all of their forces to this world.'
Although all the stores were still closed, I could see people doing small transactions in the dark alleys.
Since there weren't any restaurants open, except maybe a few in the dark alleys, I just walked back out of the city and into the forest again.
At first, I was tempted to go to a sketchy restaurant in the alleys, but I held myself back. I was already caught up in a demon experiment once, and even though they can't really do anything to me, I'd rather just relax in my shack, devoid of any social contact.
I wasn't always such a social outcast, but ever since my parents died, I haven't gotten a lot of opportunities to have conversations with people that didn't absolutely hate me. It's safe to say that my social skills have gone down a few levels since then.
I think I finally realised my subpar social skills when I first started talking to objects, like my shack. Everytime I start a conversation, I usually try to think of every response possible and think of responses to those responses before actually beginning to talk.
Although this has a decently high chance of working, there are a lot of issues with this way of having conversations.
Especially when someone else starts a conversation with me, I don't have enough time to think of everything, although I can normally see when someone is walking towards me to talk. It's also quite taxing on my brain, so there are times when I just stop thinking ahead and start saying the first things that are on my mind... which isn't always the best choice.
I calmly walked through the forest, and when I finally reached my shack, the sun had already set.
While I can't say my shack was always in a good shape, it looked especially tragic right now. The walls and roof have completely crumbled down and an ogre was lying on top of the remaining pieces of wood. On the ground next to the ogre were several other demons.
Although I would usually murder the enemies, it seemed like they were already dead.
I stepped forward out of the darkness of the shadows and I spotted a human leaning against a tree near my broken-down shack, seemingly resting.
It was the same boy who I met in the city, but this time, he was covered in the blood of his enemies. Instead of giving off a friendly vibe, he seemed like a predator, looking at his prey.
The boy saw me walking towards him and asked warily:
"What are you doing here? This is pretty deep in the forest."
"Actually, this shack was my house. I just came back from the city."
The boy's eyes widened as he looked at my broken shack.
"Someone actually lived there? I'm sorry, I thought it was abandoned and didn't think about protecting it. Since the city is pretty far away, I don't think you can make it back anytime soon. If it's alright with you, you could stay the night with me. I'm traveling with four other people right now, and our camp is pretty close to here."
'Well... I do need somewhere to sleep, and this won't cost me any money. Maybe I could scam them into giving me some food as well?'
"Yeah, that's fine with me. I hope they don't mind me intruding."
The boy smiled when he heard me accept his offer.
"I just realised I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Kevin Ernestyn and I'm from another world."
"I'm Bryan Gale. Also, I thought you were hiding the fact that you aren't from Earth?"
Kevin smiled wryly.
"Well, it's kind of hard hiding it now. I'm covered in blood and there aren't a lot of reasons to travel with such a small group while there is a worldwide disaster going on. And there isn't really any reason to hide it from a friend."
'A friend? Isn't this just our second time speaking to each other?'
"Alright, that makes enough sense. Now, should we start walking?"
"Yeah, I'll take you to our camp."
Kevin began walking between the trees, and I followed behind him.
After walking for a few minutes, I could start seeing a light from a campfire.
There were four others seated near the campfire, and although they didn't have their weapons in their hands, they were all on guard against me.
The first one to talk was Kevin.
"Calm down guys, he's a friend of mine. He lived in the shack that we destroyed, so I suggested to him that he could sleep here for the night. Go introduce yourself."
I stepped in front of Kevin and said in my usual poker face:
"Hello there, I'm Bryan Gale. Thank you for letting me stay here for a night."
"Hello, I'm Tony Jenson."
"Hey, I am Leo Tory."
"H- Hi, I'm Alesha Ivy..."
"Iris Ernestyn."
Seeing that everyone had introduced themselves, I stepped back behind Kevin and stood there waiting for something to happen.
They started setting up another tent for me to stay in. When they were done, I just went into my tent and started sleeping. One of them was keeping watch every night, so there was no chance that a random demon would destroy my shelter again.
****
[The next morning]
(Kevin Ernestyn)
I woke up in my rather uncomfortable sleeping bag. After stretching for a bit, I exited my tent.
It seems like I was the first one to wake up, aside from Tony, who was the one that had to stay up the entire night.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
After saying our greetings, we stayed silent, waiting for the rest to wake up.
Shortly after, everyone woke up and got out of their tent, aside from Bryan.
Leo came up to me and asked:
"Hey Kevin, how long is Bryan going to stay here? I'm not sure we can protect him while we're fighting."
"Don't worry, I don't think he'd like to go on this adventure anyway. He will probably go back to the city today."
Right on cue, Bryan stepped out of his tent as we were talking about him.
'Ah, speak of the devil. I'll just ask him what his plans are now.'
I walked towards Bryan, and he also started walking towards me.
"Good morning Bryan. I wanted to ask you what your plans are now. Are you going back to the city?"
"Good morning. I was planning to go back to the city today, but can I eat some breakfast from you guys first?"
"Haha, of course you can! Just take a seat near the campfire, and Alesha will make some breakfast for everyone. She is the only one that can actually cook here, except if you are secretly some kind of master chef."
Although his expression didn't change, I could see his eyes light up just a tiny bit.
"Thanks for the free food. Also, I can't really cook."
I smiled at his blunt response.
"Yeah, I didn't really expect you to be able to cook. I've been training for months now, but still can't cook anything decent."
Everyone took a seat near the campfire, while Alesha began cooking some beef stew.
"Watch out! Demons are coming!"
Leo suddenly shouted.
Everyone except Bryan quickly grabbed their weapons and stood up.
Tony and I held a sword in our arms, Iris had her usual spear, Leo was using gauntlets and Alesha had a dagger in each hand.
"Bryan, stay here! We'll take care of this!"
There were only 8 demons. Usually, this would be an easy battle, but we can't afford to let a demon past us this time.
I sprinted towards a demon, while the others also held back one demon each.
'There are 3 demons left!'
Quickly turning my head around, I spotted the 3 demons that were left over.
I swung my sword at the demon in front of me, while he parried it with both of his claws. I let go of my sword and quickly ducked down, avoiding the claws.
I used all the force in my legs to jump up, grabbing the demon's neck at the same time. My nails dug into the flesh of the demon and my fingers managed to pierce the demon's neck when we fell to the ground.
Quickly grabbing the sword on the ground, I rushed back towards the 3 demons that were going to Bryan.
I held the hilt of my sword with both of my hands and threw it forward, towards the demon closest to me.
The sword flew through the air and landed on the back of the demon's head. It pierced the skull of the demon, as blood spurted out of the wound.
'Damn, I'm not going to make it!'
I looked around to see if anyone else could catch up to the 2 demons, but I was the closest to them.
"Bryan! Run! The demons are coming for you, why the hell are you eating!"
I screamed at Bryan, who was peacefully eating his portion of the beef stew.
Suddenly, Bryan's figure blurred for a fraction of a second, while the 2 demons violently fell on the ground.
Taking advantage of the weird situation, I jumped on one of the demons.
Clenching my fists, I repeatedly punched the back of the demon's head until he died.
I looked towards the other demon, only to find a spear piercing his head.
"Hey, what just happened?"
Leo asked, but no one could find a proper answer to his question.
In return, I asked another question.
"Did you guys also see Bryan's figure blur for a second?"
"Hmm? I didn't see anything. All I saw was the demons abruptly falling to the ground."
"Yeah, the same with me. I was too far back to see everything in detail. Are you sure it isn't just your imagination?"
I furrowed my brows and thought for a few seconds.
"But why did both of the demons suddenly fall down? I mean, they literally have wings. What if Bryan managed to somehow do that? Maybe this world actually has some secret powerhouses or something."
Tony answered my wild theories:
"Although we haven't been in this world for a long time, we have had enough contact with normal citizens. There can't be such a huge power gap, right?"
"But that's why I called him a 'secret' powerhouse. What if we recruit him to our group? I'll take all the responsibility. In the best-case scenario, we get a powerful ally, while in the worst-case scenario, he can just carry our baggage. If he wanted to kill us, then he could have done it already."
'I'm probably being desperate right now, but having someone strong by our side can finally give us a chance of surviving against the demon king.'
"Haaa... Well, if everyone else agrees to it, then it's fine."
Tony sighed.
"Yeah, as long as he doesn't murder me, then I accept it."
"I think it's fine if he joins us..."
"It's alright."
Since everyone agreed to having Bryan join our group, we went over to Bryan to recruit him.
Leo immediately cut to the chase.
"Hey Bryan, join our group!"
"Wow, you really didn't beat around the bush. Are you sure you want me to join? What am I even supposed to do?"
Now everyone turned to look at me.
"Well... you can fight if you want. Otherwise, you can just carry our luggage. If you join, then you can eat Alesha's delicious food. Also, adventures like this one can be really fun."
Bryan didn't waste another second and instantly responded:
"Yes, I will join your group. Please take care of me."
"..."
"Haahaha! I didn't expect such a quick and decisive answer, but that's fine. Welcome to the group!"