Tires screeched as Matt brought the Oshkosh M-ATV to halt between a pair of buildings on what he could only assume was one of the main roads leading into the small town. A thick black smoke hung in the air while multiple buildings burned in roaring flames. Despite the heavy rain that had been ever present over the past few weeks, the buildings seemed to burn like matchsticks as the flames spread from one building to another. The streets below were littered with rubble, debris, and bodies. Some of which looked like tiefling-like creatures they had run into in the woods while the vast majority of the others were the grotesque forms of goblins laying out on the street. Matt's eyes scanned over the area, looking for any sign of life even as he stepped down from the truck and out onto the cobblestone road underneath him. Remmy had climbed down out of the turret and was now standing on the other side of the rig, Matt just able to see the top of her head. She had forgone her helmet and had dawned the camo patterned truckers hat with a bright orange brim she loved to wear. She had her Comtac headset over her hat and Matt heard her voice as she used it to speak with him through his own headset.
"Contacts, right side of the street, three buildings down,structure with the red roof. Looks like several hostiles trying to gain entry."
Matt's eyes moved in the direction she had called out and through the heavy smoke and ashes he could just make out what looked to be at least three of the little green freaks slamming their fists and weapons angrily against the door.
"Roger, I see 'em. I got possible I.D. on several more my side of the street further down." Matt replied as he used his off hand to key the comms relay on his plate carrier.
"How we rolling this boss?" Remmy asked
"Let's smoke 'em. Slow and smooth, I'll cover you. Take out the ones on your side first." Matt said as he propped the super pig up on the hood of the MRAP.
There was a single mic key in his ear even as Matt watched the sergeant begin to move forward. The mic key was a wordless confirmation that she had understood the orders he had given as she moved to execute them. Matt shouldered up his heavy weapon and peered through the holographic mounted to the rail on top of it. From his position he watched as the sergeant moved forward almost like a silent predatory closing in on its prey. Armed with her close quarters MP7 in hand, she moved through the smoke towards the buildings on the right side of the street. She stopped a few buildings away from the one where the green creatures bashed away at the door and took cover behind the small porch on the front of the building, her weapon raised and ready to go. Matt took a quick glance down the road, the other mass of creatures still hammering away at the other door on his side of the street didn't seem to notice them yet. He wondered for a moment if the creatures had some form of hearing loss or if they just couldn't hear all that well in the first place. The MRAP was far from silent and they had been close enough that they should have turned every head on the whole street.
He shoved the question out of his head as he focused back on the three closer to them. They had managed to put a sizable hole in the door and one was just putting its fat little head through the opening. Matt didn't waste a moment more as he reached for his mic, and keyed it twice. Three suppressed shots rang out for only a moment as two of the three beings collapsed. Remmy had executed the first with a pin point shot straight to its skull while the other took two shots to its center mass before it fell. The third one, the freak with its head stuck through the door, leaned away and looked back at its dead comrades on the ground with a confused grunting sound. It didn't have time to raise an alarm or even look around as Remmy placed another well aimed shot straight through the side of its head. The goblin collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes as the Sergeant began moving up towards the doorway. Matt continued to cover her with his weapon and chanced another side long glance down the street. The other goblins down the street had broken through the door at last and Matt watched as the last one made entry into the building.
"Shit, four entered the structure down the road" Matt heard Remmy say as she posted herself against the door frame where the trio had been trying to break through.
Matt didn't reply as he picked up the Super Pig and began making his way across the street towards the sergeant. Her weapon was raised and pointed slightly away from the door as she looked down the street, ready to react to any threat that approached them in that direction. Matt moved himself up behind her and took her place watching the street with his weapon before she transitioned flawlessly to the door. There was no way that just the two of them could actively clear every structure along the street and they didn't want to go too far away from MRAP. However, the goblins had been trying to break down this door specifically, making it at least worth investigating for possible survivors before they moved on. Matt continued to cover Remmy as she pointed her weapon in through the hole in the door. It must have been too dark for her to see as she switched on the flashlight mounted to the side of her weapon and used it to look inside. She paused for a moment and with her off hand raised three fingers over the top of her weapon to signal him that she saw at least three unknowns inside. Matt nodded without a word as he moved around her to the otherside of the door frame from Remmy.
With an exchange of nods in a silent countdown, Matt used his heavy boots to kick open the already damaged door. Before Matt could even turn, Remmy was already going through the doorway with her weapon up and ready. She cleared the right as Matt came in close behind her covering the left. It was dark inside, even though there were windows in the room that they entered. The light from the PEQ-15 mounted on the super pig lit up the darkened room like a beam of sunlight. There was a small table flipped up on its side facing towards the door in which they had entered. Broken glass and bottles laid strewn about on the carpet. The furniture looked well made, though the table was clearly missing a leg that looked like it had been broken off. Matt moved the light over the room carefully as he scanned it for the three possible contacts Remmy had seen. There was paintings of beautiful yet alien looking scenery up on the walls and Matt almost pulled the trigger of what looked to be some sort of stuffed giant Beaver with massive teeth sitting in the corner of the room. A shallow staircase led up to a loft where the flashlights for the duo's weapons met on three small figures. They looked almost like children, frightened and scared by the sudden intruders with two of them cowering behind the biggest of the three. Each of them had red skin like the other tieflings they'd seen before, though the two smaller ones didn't look like they had horns on their heads. The child standing in the middle had her sharp teeth bared in an angry scowl and they held something that looked like a small knife in their hands pointed directly at the intruders. They were all covered in blood from what Matt could see and their clothes were torn almost into rags.
"They're just kids," Remmy said with a tone of surprise in her voice.
The taller of the three glowered even more as they held the knife further out as if ready to defend the two smaller children behind them when Remmy spoke.
"Think maybe they got left behind by those others in all the chaos?"
Matt's eyes met with the oldest. Their clothes were baggy like the two but Matt could see a distinguishable cut in their clothes around their midsection that gleamed with fresh blood from an open wound. The kid didn't seem phased by it though, that or they were too hopped up on adrenaline to feel the pain just yet. Their eyes burned with hate and fury as they stayed locked onto Matt.
"Doesn't matter. Lets round them up and get them back to the truck" Matt said lowering his weapon down and moving the flashlight away
"On it"
Remmy didn't argue the point with him as she lowered her weapon and began heading towards the shallow staircase cautiously. She still had one hand on her weapon but carefully ascended the stairs up towards the children as she held out a gloved hand towards them.
"Come on. Let's get you guys someplace safe" Remmy said with such a soft motherly voice that was almost completely different from her normal loud and brash demeanor.
Her smile was soft as she paused on the steps closest to the top and gently waved the children to her. One of the children, a small boy Matt thought couldn't have been older than five or maybe six, began to step hesitantly forward but the eldest one held out an arm to stop him. They had turned to more directly face the sergeant on the stairs now and Matt could see they each had long, thin tails. THe eldest looked like a girl probably around ten or so while the other child was probably around the same age as the boy and was clutching onto a stuffed animal behind the eldest. It was then Matt noticed the eldest wasn't holding a blade in her hands, but one of her own horns it looked like from her head. Dark purple blood had stained the side of her head and Matt could now see the stump in her hair where the horn had once been. She held her own pointed horn in her hand like a knife and looked just as ready to stab Remmy as the first moment they had entered. The sergeant had noticed this and it was the reason she probably stopped at the top of the stairs instead of getting any closer.
"Easy now, we aren't here to hurt you" Remmy said, again in a soft warming voice.
Matt turned away for a moment, looking behind them and checking the street beyond the doorway. There were no signs of the little green freaks anymore but movement caught his eye from behind the truck and he quickly raised his weapon in that direction.
"Hurry it up Sergeant. We got company" Matty said as he looked through the sights on the Super Pig.
There was a lone figure that at first was shrouded by the smoke and embers that hung heavy in the air. The smoke had begun to filter its way into the building from where Matt stood and he had to cover his mouth with a shemagh he produced from inside his vest with one hand. The figure was completely covered in a leather cloak and Matt couldn't make out any sort of facial features under the hood that it wore. Its steps were slow and methodical, not too unlike someone who had experience moving around quietly yet efficiently. Matt followed the cloaked figure with the barrel of the M6338 and waited as he watched the figure continue to move around the truck until it stopped towards the front of the vehicle.
"No… trust. Elf…assassin"
The voice came from behind Matt and definitely didn't belong to the sergeant. It sounded harsh in its broken and heavily accented English yet had a slightly higher tone of that of a child compared to that of both Matt and Remmy's voice.
"You speak, english?" Remmy asked, sounding just as surprised as Matt felt.
Suddenly, there was a loud bellowing roar that split the air outside of the house. Matt watched as the cloaked figure turned around quickly, causing the edges of the hood to move and reveal the lower half of a gentle looking face and a pair of parted red lips for just a moment. The earth under Matt's boots shook and trembled as something approached from further down the street with a resounding thud, thud thud with each step it took. Even through the darkened haze and smoke, Matt could make out the dark visage of something absolutely enormous making its way down the main street. Matt heard Remmy mutter curses from behind him as the children let out frightened wails.
"Ogrey! Ogrey!"
Matt didn't have to understand whatever language they were crying in to understand what they were so afraid of. The lumbering creature emerged through the smoke and haze into clear vision and Matt saw the unmistakable clear visage of an Ogre. It was tall, standing easily fifteen or even twenty feet high and it carried a large tree trunk in its massive hand like a club. Its massive, grotesque stomach shook and waddled as it settled and Matt could see its large teeth were grinding something inside its jaw as it chewed and swallowed whatever it was eating with a disgusting grunt. Its eyes looked like massive black orbs in its deformed head and though Matt couldn't see its pupils, he felt like it was staring directly at the cloaked figure standing in front of MRAP. The creatures hoisted the tree trunk up to its shoulder like a baseball player would hold a bat before it reached down to a leather pouch on its otherwise mostly naked body and pulled out an arm. The arm was covered and dripping in blood and it had red skin. The bottom of the pouch was soaked in the same red blood as the ogre lifted the arm up to its mouth and hungrily threw it in.
Just then, Matt felt a sudden and unexplainable anger surge through his entire body. He gritted his teeth as he clutched onto the Super Pig with white knuckles and Matt could feel the rage boiling up inside him. He closed his eyes for a moment in an attempt to focus in on and control this new found rage but instead all he could see was that deep dark pit. The pit deep inside his soul where he buried everything his mind deemed unessential to him. The pit where he threw things like memories and feelings deep into. It was the place where he hid his demons and now he could see them. Like wicked skeletal forms emerging from a black tar pit, they rose to the surface with his rage and anger. He didn't understand why at first he was so angry all of a sudden. Wasn't it a natural thing usually in a world like this for the weak to be preyed upon and possibly end up as something's potential meal? Even in his own world, the weak were preyed upon by the strong in their own way he supposed. No, this was different. His mind thought back to the children he had seen in the woods as well as the three standing behind him. His mind's eye replaced the arm in the Orge's mouth with that of the one of the children and… that thought tipped over the boiling pot.
Matt opened his eyes and without a word, stepped out onto the small porch on the front of the building where the three goblin bodies still laid lifelessly as he raised his weapon to meet the Ogre. Hate burned in Matt's chest like a wildfire out of control, but his years of training and operating in high stress environments suddenly kicked in and his mind put that fire in a contained box, and used it as fuel. The Ogre probably hadn't even noticed the new arrival as it still chomped away loudly on the dismembered body part. It soon learned of Matt's sudden presence though as a stream of sharp angry bees began filling its large grotesque form with a sudden burning pain. The Ogre let out a loud howl that Matt could hear even over the heavy fire from the Super Pig. The stream of bullets actually caused it to stumble backwards some as its hulking form tripped and fell over backwards into the wall of a building. Matt let go of the trigger as the beast fell and watched as it was showered in falling rubble and debris. He had spent about a quarter of the remaining belt of 338 on the monster and Matt thought for sure that he must have killed the monster as it fell. The rage inside him subsided only for a moment when he saw a blurr rush past him out of the corner of his eye. Falling debris was still hitting the creature when suddenly Matt saw the cloaked figure that had been behind him just a moment ago, standing on the Ogre chest with a long, needle-like sword in its hand before it thrusted it down into the beast. The Ogre must have either been playing dead or Matt had somehow rendered it unconscious but suddenly the monster let out another ear piercing howl of pain as the blade in its chest suddenly ignited. Black flames came down off the thin blade and the monster thrashed out and tried to extinguish them as the flames moved from the blade and into the creature's chest. The hooded figure remained on its chest, seemingly unmoved by its wild thrashing and held the blade into the creature's chest until it looked to have finally succumbed to the flames.
Matt watched as the cloaked figure pulled the blade out from the Ogre chest before leaping through the air and landing directly in front of him. The leather hood of the beings cloak fell and Matt saw the being face in its entirety for the first time. It was… a woman. She had long ginger hair that was a few shades darker then Matt's with big beautiful eyes that almost looked just as yellow as the sun. She had plump, full lips and a gentle face that showed little to almost no emotion as she stood before him. Most notable though was her ears. She had a pair of big fuzzy ears on top of her head rather than on the sides with orange fur that matched her hair and black tips. She was… stunningly beautiful, even as she held Matt by sword point with the very tip of her long blade pointed directly at his chest.
"Ich daray ta"
Her voice was just as heavenly as she looked, even if she sounded like she was either scolding him for something or asking him who the hell he was in some language Matt never heard before. He looked down at her as her ears rotated back a little on top of her head and she pushed the tip of the blade a little more against his plate carrier. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she repeated herself again with a definite sternness in her tone.
"Ich-daray-ta"
"I'm… sorry? I don't understand" Matt replied a bit hesitantly
Matt still clutched the Super Pig in his gloved hands as he looked down at her. She was about Remmy's height, maybe a little bit taller. Her ears seemed to add to her height a little. Her facial expression changed from that of almost anger to surprised shock as her ears perked up on top of her head. Her long eyelashes fluttered a little as she blinked and her pink lips parted a little.
"Nag unta chu yu" Matt heard the voice of the older child coming from the door.
The woman's facial features became serious once more as her eyes flicked to the door behind Matt. He couldn't see what was going on behind him but he could hear the sound of several feet approaching them.
"Oi, Roseis. Sae unta e chu?" the woman replied as a look of concern crossed her face.
The young tiefling was standing beside them now with the other children standing behind her and in front of Remmy, who looked like she was ready to snap her weapon up in a flash to blow the woman's brains out. The young girl looked tattered, tired, and torn in the limited light that came through the heavy haze, looking much older than Matt first thought her to be. She still held her horn in her hand but didn't seem terribly bothered by the large cut still in her side as she stood with her arms folded looking almost more annoyed than anything else. She looked blankly at the woman for a few moments before she turned her attention up towards Matt.
"You are…human?" Matt's eyebrows raised as he once again heard the girl speak to him in english.
The woman nearly dropped the sword in her hand as she took a few uneasy steps away from Matt. Her big eyes grew even wider as she looked at him. She began muttering in that language he didn't understand as she held her pointed chin with her fingers and seemed to be in some serious thought. Matt turned his attention back to the tiefling girl still standing beside them. The two other kids stood close to one another, holding each other in their arms as they looked around completely frightened. There were still bodies all over the place and there still could have been more threats in the area as well. Matt's brow furrowed as he looked back down at the girl who looked up at him almost completely disinterested in everything else around them. He had to admit, the kid must have been tough.
"We are. Can you… understand us?" Matt replied
The tiefling girl seemed more perplexed than the woman as she cast a sidelong glance for a moment with a furrowed brow. Matt didn't know whether she was trying to understand what he had asked or if she was weighing whatever implications of being a human must be around here but he watched her drop her shoulders and let out a long sigh before she nodded.
"Yes, Roseis understand. Your tongue, ancient. Long forgotten and… small differences." the girl replied.
Matt was starting to get a sense that this tiefling may not be as young as she looked, and it made him wonder if the other two children behind her were also older than they looked as well.
"Boss, back inside she said something along the lines of not seeing beings like us in a long time. It's possible there aren't any humans native to this region?" Remmy interjected while still watching the fox woman have some sort of crisis.
"Fuck," Matt said bluntly "Alright, Sergeant I don't think we are going to find to many other survivors here. Get the kids loaded in the MATV and let's get the hell out of here before anything else bigger and meaner shows up."
"On it boss" Remmy replied with a nod.
She ignored the woman and bent over slightly to the children with a smile and though Matt wasn't sure they understood her gentle words she used to speak with them, they seemed to feel safe enough to go with her as she led them carefully towards the truck. Matt watched them go for a moment before he turned and looked at the woman who stood nearby watching them.
"Who is she?" he asked the tiefling girl
"The… watcher? Rather… Oracle? It is her job to watch over land. Travel great distance…to get here" the tiefling replied.
The woman with the fox-like ears, as Matt had decided they looked a lot like, must have realized she had become the topic of the conversation as she stepped forward. She no longer had that look of almost permanent indigestion on her face that she had earlier, instead she seemed a bit more curious now than anything. Matt looked behind her for a moment at the rubble and debris and he felt his heart sink a little. The demons in his chest had settled down for now and instead he felt a sense of sorrow. He'd seen his fair share of war torn cities and villages but this, this felt like it could have been avoided somehow, though he couldn't explain it just then. He turned his attention back to the woman who was smiling now, if not a bit forced, and even held out a hand towards him. At least some things seemed universal across different worlds.
"Akira Hiromi" the woman said, followed by a bunch of words that sounded like a long list of titles Matt didn't understand.
Of course the woman with the fox ears on her head would have a Japanese sounding name, if that was her name. Matt forced himself his own smile as he held out his massive hand and took her much smaller one in his hand before he shook it.
"Master Chief Matthew Winters, Three-Forty-Second" he said introducing himself in shorter details before he looked down at the tiefling "You two speak the same language right? Can you tell her that I don't mean to be rude but we need to move before any more, bad guys show up"
The tiefling girl was holding onto the stomp on top of her head now and looked a little more worse for wear as if she was remembering that she had been wounded. She nodded and looked like she was about to start translating when Matt saw her eyes start to roll back. He reached out and caught her just in time as she began to slump forward.
"Three, I need you on me now. Got one critically wounded." He said into his mic as he began slowly laying the tiefling down.
Remmy was there beside them in moments. She already had her emergency IFAK (Infantry First Aid Kit) out and was using the pair of scissors she kept in her rig to start cutting open the girls loose clothes. It was then Matt realized his earlier assumption had been true, this tiefling was definitely not a child. That or their race definitely matured a lot earlier than humans did. Her loose clothes had hidden her figure well but she had a sleek muscle toned body and a chest that rivaled Remmy's. She had clearly lost a lot of blood. Though her stomp on her head looked like it had been bleeding before, the wound in her side was much larger and still open.
"Pour this the wound" Remmy said, handing Matt a bottle of iodine as she began disinfecting her own hands.
"You gonna do surgery right here?" Matt asked.
"Wounds deep, clearly infected with something. If we don't act now I might not have time to do it properly later" she replied as she began tearing open a pack of sterile tools she had in her kit.
"Shit balls" Matt muttered as he poured the bottle onto the wound gingerly.
Remmy was right, whatever had cut her had torn large chunks of flesh away and there were already signs of infection along with a slight black ooze. Matt wondered if it was just the congealed form of the tieflings purple blood but something told him it might be something more. Just then, as Remmy was about to start cutting away some of the infected flesh, the fox woman who had introduced herself as Akira, knelt down directly beside Matt and placed her hands over the wound.
"What the-? Hey! Get out of he-" Remmy was about to start pushing her away when she stopped.
A brilliant warm light began to emanate from Akira's hands over the wound and before their very eyes they began to watch as the wound on her side began to not only heal itself, but also regrow some of the flesh that had been clearly lost before. Both Matt and Remmy sat there in awe as they watched what they could only assume to be as magic worked its way in beautiful strands of warm golden energy over the infected wound and slowly sealed it up with no signs of the infection or injury.
"Holy-" Matt muttered
"I mean… it makes, sense? If this is similar to the game then healing magic- you know?"
Remmy was clearly having just as hard enough time coming to terms with what they both had just witnessed. Akira let out a small audible sigh as she leaned back and moved her hands away from the tieflings side. Matt turned to look at her and what he saw, he could only describe as the perfect image of what he thought an angel might look like. She was surrounded in the same warming glow that had been on her hands before as she sat back on her knees. Her eyes were closed and she looked like she was even smiling a little as if basking in the glow before it began to slowly fade away. It took Matt a bit longer than he probably should have to realize that he was staring at her. It wasn't until she opened her eyes and turned to look back at him with a gentle smile that he realized it. He offered an apologetic smile just as he heard a small stirring. The tiefling…woman was starting to wake up now as Matt turned his attention back to her. He was immediately met with a pair of hands shoved in his face to make him look away as he heard Remmy's voice exclaim.
"Jesus fucking Christ Matt don't look!"
He quickly diverted his eyes and looked away as he felt Remmy begin to reach around to his back and begin unzipping his pack.
"Hey, the fuck are you doing back there?" he asked but still didn't look.
"You still got that shirt I got you back here? Jesus boss, you got enough ammo?"
Matt rolled his eyes as he felt Remmy digging through his pack before she pulled what she had been looking for out from the bottom of his gear. The shirt was a black t-shirt that had a depiction of a bearded skull wearing a fast helmet and nods. It had a pair of horns sticking up through the helmet and it was clearly made to look like a modern day viking warrior. The shirt had been one of the only true real gifts he had received from Bravo three and the shirt had become more of a lounge and work out shirt then anything else. When Matt had filled the pack on his back with extra ammo for the Super Pig it must have been pushed down to the bottom where he had forgotten about it till now. Matt heard Remmy unfold the shirt and snap it a few times to try and get some of the wrinkles out. There was movement behind him as he caught a glimpse of the fox woman out of the corner of his eye. Her cheeks had grown a little red as she was watching what was happening behind Matt. He seriously hoped remmy wasn't doing anything wrong back there, but knowing her as she probably already had done something to disappoint him in front of the natives. Letting out a sigh, Matt rose up to his feet with a slight grunt as he began scanning their surroundings again.
The two children, or at least other tieflings, were sitting in the front seat of the MATV. The girl with longer hair and the stuffed animal was trying to get the boy's attention as he was looking around inside the vehicle with childlike wonderment in his eyes. They were safe as long as they stayed inside the truck for now but Matt hoped the kids' curiosity didn't get the better of him and that he wouldn't go around touching things that he shouldn't be. Matt thought about all the weapons and other pieces of equipment a child might think was some sort of fun toy and accidently put a hole in something, or someone.
"Is she good to move?" Matt asked out loud.
"Should be fine now. Amazing, she doesn't even seem like she's really hurt anymore. She's still out but stable" Remmy replied.
Matt turned and looked down at the tiefling woman who was laying in Remmy's arms. She was now wearing his shirt and it fit her like a really long dress. If he hadn't seen her before he would have thought she was a child again.
"Alright, let's load her up into the rig and see if we can't find those others again in the woods. If she knows English, maybe it's safe to assume the others might as well."
"She did say something about our language being ancient or something. She could be some sort of linguist or something?" Remmy replied as she hefted the tiefling up in her arms as she stood.
"Itai yon fondar?" Akira spoke up as she stood and looked back and forth between the two.
"I'm sorry, we still don't understand" Remmy chuckled a little apologetically.
The fox woman rolled her eyes with huff before she stepped forward and placed a hand on Remmy's shoulder. The sergeant didn't pull away as this time a faint blue light emanated from Akira's hand as she closed her eyes and seemed to focus. There was a long pause before the light faded and Akira moved closer over towards Matt. She looked up at him and Matt could have sworn he saw her blush a little even as she reached out and touched his bicep. The same blue light began to glow once more and Matt looked at Remmy who just shrugged. A few moments later, the light died out but Akira didn't move her hand away immediately like she had done with Remmy. Matt waited a few more moments, unsure of what was going on but eager to get a move on as he made a sound clearing his throat. Akira immediately recoiled away, this time the blush a bit more noticeable as she apologetically backed up with a smile. She took a moment, collecting herself it seemed, before she straightened out her leather cloak a little and spoke again.
"There, can you understand me better now?" she said
Matt was suddenly floored for a moment but the nerdy part of his brain kicked in and told him she probably cast a spell like comprehend languages or something like that upon both of them. That same part of his brain suddenly started firing off all sorts of thoughts and ideas as the implications of magic were introduced to him. He quickly pushed those thoughts aside however as quickly as they had come and saw that Remmy was very much still hanging on to those thoughts as she wore a huge smile across her face. God, Matt hoped spells like fireball weren't a thing, or at least a thing she wouldn't have access to.
"Um, yeah. Yes. Thank you. I understand you just fine now. What did you do?" Matt replied, still a bit stunned himself
"I cast the spell Tongues on both you and your underling. We will be able to understand one another for a little bit of time now until I can get you rings." Akira replied.
Matt shot a sidelong look over at Remmy with a slight smirk on his lips. Her eyes narrowed for only a moment at him as if challenging him to say something out loud about her being called his underling. Matt's smirk only grew as he thought he may have found a new way to get back at Bravo Three before he focused back on the Fox Woman.
"Oh wow, thank you again. I was just telling my underling that we shouldn't stick around long in case more show up" Matt replied, making sure to reuse the word underling again.
Akira's face turned sullen for a moment as she stepped to look at the village with a frown. She held onto her own hands as she looked to the remains of the town. Besides the crackling flames, things had grown silent. Matt wandered where the goblins had gone off too and wished he had had the foresight to use the drone in the truck to scout out more of the area ahead of time. Akira let out a sigh as she hung her head a little and her ears drooped.
"I'm afraid I was too late this time. If it weren't for you I doubt even they would have been alive to see morrows light" She said motioning to the children back in the truck "Such a strange carriage, it looks too heavy for a horse to move. How will you get it out of the village?"
"Don't worry about that sister." Remmy smiled and winked over at the fox woman who tilted her head to the side a little.
"My apologize but I do not see how we could be of kin" Akira replied
"Oh um, where we come from…uh, let's- lets get going huh?" Remmy chuckled nervously as she began to carry the still unconscious tiefling in her arms towards the truck.
Matt watched her for a moment before he turned around and looked back at the destroyed remains of the village. He didn't know why, he'd only just arrived at this village and didn't know a single soul that lived there, but Matt felt a heavy feeling of regret and sorrow as he looked over the destroyed village. His eyes fell upon the fox woman still standing there before him. She had the same look in her eyes as she looked back at the still burning remains of the village. Matt had a sinking feeling that for some reason, this woman would be playing a big role in their future here in this new world.