Warning: this chapter has a good bit of gore, be advised
...
Logan comes around the corner snapping me out of my current thoughts. He looks at me with a raised eyebrow and I return it with a scowl.
"Still pissed off at you but I get your reasoning," I say.
"Good, now get some shuteye, it's almost midnight and you look like shit, trust me sleeping accelerates healing. Remember you have school in the morning."
"Fuuuuuuck".
"Yep, take the couch, I'll get you some blankets and a pillow. Do whatever the hell you do before bed and get to it".
I go to the bathroom and strip to my skivvies. I look at my body in the mirror and there are bruises all over my body which are slowly losing their purple and yellow color as I look at them. I catch myself thinking,' well damn I look like a fuckin abuse victim'.
Well I can't brush my teeth because I don't have a toothbrush but I can take a shower. After asking Logan if I could I take a shower I take a boiling hot shower and it feels like heaven on my achey joins and muscles.
As I feel the water trickle down my fingertips I notice a phantom pain in the arm I broke, it's almost like it's not natural, or maybe it's that my body is moving faster than my mind.
The water starts to get cold as I stand there mulling over my thoughts, and I've come to one great conclusion, having a combination of ADHD and anxiety is a bitch.
I quickly wash up before I get frostbite, I swear, I don't know how people take cold showers.
Getting out of the shower I dry off and notice I don't have a change of clothes. Well that would be the ADHD.
" Logan! Can I borrow some of your clothes?"
"Sure!"
He brings me a baggy pair of sweatpants, a navy colored hoodie that says 'Snappies Carpet Cleaners' and an oversized t-shirt, because none of his other clothes fit my skinny frame.
I go to lay down on the couch smelling faintly of bourbon and pine tar. A light blanket covers me and an ample pillow supports my head.
Before I go to sleep I think,'Adel I think I'd like to do The Regiment tonight'.
[Surely, sir]
A screen appears in front of my vision saying:
[Which statistic would you like to train]
[Reflex]
[Will]
[Intelligence]
I mentally click on will because getting that as high as I can get it will get me that much closer to being able that two times boost. The feeling of that two times boost from that rage strike was intoxicating, y'know before my arm broke in five places.
[Waiting for you, Chris]
I slowly drift off to sleep as the black in my vision consumes my consciousness.
I wake up to a screen saying:
[Welcome to Will training maggot]
[I'm going to give you a small explanation before you get thrown into the heat of war]
[You will chose a set of armor and a weapon and shield. A shield is heavily recommended]
I wake up in a large field, these messages turn into a man large enough to use me as a weapon, yelling orders. He has a large scar going from the top corner of his forehead, across his eye to the top of his lip, and salt and pepper hair. The eye which the scar goes over is grey and glassed out, even though I know he's just a part of the system he has an air about him like he could put me on my ass in two seconds flat. He is wearing a set of full plate armor without the helmet and with every movement a clang of metal follows.
At the end of his words a few armor stands and weapon racks stand behind him. The armors range from full plate to light leather armor. The weapons on the racks are any type of medieval weaponry you could think of from maces and swords to a kanabo and katana.
There was also a wall of shields, from a hide shield with a metal core to a tower shield.
[Just grab the weapon and shield you want and tap on the armor you want and it will automatically equip onto your person, now get on with it we don't have all day!]
I walk up to the weapon racks with a hesitant look on my face as I pick up a arming sword, it is 3-4 pounds, perfect weight, balance and sharper than a strait razor which I prove by easily cutting my finger on the edge. Which heals immediately, nice I still have all my powers.
Seeing that I'm set up for success with the weapons and assumingly the armor and shields, a small smile sprouts on my face.
"You do love me Adel".
[You won't be thinking the same in a few minutes], says a familiar voice in my head.
I put the arming sword back in it's place instead picking up a hand and a half sword, which I test out with a few swings. As the arming sword was, everything about the sword is perfect and suited to by body size and strength.
A hand and a half sword is half way between a longsword and a arming sword about 3.5 feet to 4 feet. What makes it a hand a half sword is it's handle, it's a handle and a half with a large pommel, perfect for maneuverability. It was popular among mercenaries and knights alike in the middle ages.
As I acknowledge the hand and a half sword as my chosen weapon, a sheath appears at my hip, with which I sheath my sword promptly, onto the shield next.
I instantly go to the kite shield with a grip that is vertical along the shield. The pattern on the front of the shield is a brown background with a large green and golden dragon covering the entire shield in the medieval style. Damn that's a nice design.
As I acknowledge the shield, the shield straps itself to my left forearm. It fits snugly and suited to my arm.
Next is the armor and it's a hard choice compared to the other two, it's a choice between agility and protection. In the end after much deliberation I go with a leather armor with a metal heart protector and under it is a light amount of chainmail where my joints are. Now helmet or no helmet, that is the question. Vision is a very important thing but if I get hit in my head that's an instant KO. I choose to go without a helmet, the worst thing that will happen is I wake up in the morning.
I acknowledge the armor as my chosen one and it pops onto my body. It is quite warm under the sun, but that was expected. Other than that the armor feels like it was made to my specific measurements, it fits like a skin suit and I can do all the maneuvers that I could without the armor.
[Press the button when you are ready, steele yourself Christian]
A button appears on a pedestal in front of me and I take a deep breath and ready myself for killing another person, which I've never had to think about before. I take a long moment before I press the button.
As I press the button I'm standing in a large formation of people with tabbards and embellished on them is the same green and golden dragon on my shield.
We start moving forward as I'm pushed forward before I start moving myself.
At the other end of the field is another large formation of about 1000 men, the same as mine.
Shit. I'm going to have to kill someone, even though I know they're not real, I have to kill someone.
Slowly marching toward the other I feel a deep sense of dread, like a pit in my stomach that gets heavier and heavier as we get closer.
I look around and I see the same fear and dread in the eyes of the some of the less armored people around me, peasants plucked out of their simple farmer lifestyles, just people, not warriors. I feel a sense of morbid solace knowing I'm not the only one.
The group around me is a strange clump of people, all from different races, different backgrounds, but in the back of my head I know they aren't really people but it feels like they are. The stray bead of sweat going down someone's temple. The unsteady trot of a leg injury. The knowledge that most of these people won't make it back to their families. It's all too real.
As we near the enemy I see tabbards of purple and black making, black dragon with purple eyes. Purple fire comes out of the portrait of the menacing dragon. While golden fire comes out ours. The two sides of the same coin, I notice. It also signifies something else, they're the same as us, the same fear, the same dread. The same everything, they're just people.
[New Quest Added]
[Survive]
[Completion Prerequisites: Survival]
[Reward: 1000 exp, +10 Will points +100 gold coins]
[Optional Objective: Kill the enemy 0/50]
[Reward +10 stat points, Unlock Store]
[Optional Objective: Kill the commander]
[Reward: One Handed Weapon Proficiency lv1]
Well shit, that means I have to kill people, I've got no choice anyway, it's kill or be killed. I have the feeling this is going to be the most challenging thing I've done in my entire life.
The enemy line gets about 100 feet in front of us, and they stop. That is when a man on a horse with the same green dragon on his tabbard and on the armor on his horse comes out in front of our formation, coincidentally in front of me and starts speaking.
"We have gathered here today to fight in the name of [REDACTED] for they are the supreme goddess. She has called down on us to purge our enemies, the filthy followers of the dark one. Rememeber, we do not fight for ourselves we fight for the goddess and to cleanse all evil and filth from these sacred lands. For the Goddess! CHARGE!!!
With that, I unsheath my sword and double check the forearm fastenings on my shield, I go full speed, telling myself, if I'm going to kill someone, it needs to be like ripping off a bandaid.
I get angry at this whole situation as I activate rage attunement raising my strength to 15.
My eyes harden to lines as I focus my eyes on a man, average build, nervous eyes and weak grip on his sword.
I fall on him like an executioner's axe, kicking his shield out of his hands, and using both hands on my sword I separate his head from his shoulders.
Blood.
I feel my sword go through his spine as I freeze in place, the blood is the first thing I see. How his head sails across the battlefield, how the wetness on my face is so warm, how the air smells metallic, how I hear the sound his body makes as it hits the dirt. It's all too real.
[1/50 +5exp]
My body screams at me to move and at the last second I move, so closely that an axe whips through the air cutting through the curly locks on my forehead.
Almost on reflex I spin around into his blindspot, hitting him on the back of his helmet with the middle of my shield.
The man that I hit, stumbles forward almost falling, before catching himself. I move forward toward him before he fully rights himself and plant my foot on the side of his head, making his helmet sail off, and his axe to drop to the ground beside him.
I sheath my sword before I pick his axe up off the ground and drive it strait into his skull. I feel chips of skull scrape across my face and armor as bile comes up out of my mouth as I retch my lunch out.
[2/50 +5 exp]
My instincts yell at me again but from the grief, the puking, and the tears filling my eyes, I react a bit too late as I see a spear head enter my vision before the world goes black.
.....
Light is all I see, but as I look up at a the blue sky, the last thing I could think of was it's beauty. I remember the things I did and in my efforts to calm myself by breathing the breathing turns into hyperventilation as I curl up in a ball and about cough up a lung trying to catch my breath.
[Administering sanity retention procedures]
My lungs lock up, as a cool feeling glides along my brain. The feeling spreads throughout my entire body, relaxing all of my anxiety racked muscles before my lungs go into a smooth flow of inhalation and exhalation.
Pain still racks my brain as the images of that man's head flying across the battlefield and the other man's skull being indented by my axe flash through my mind. I would have started puking again if this cool feeling wasn't still lingering over my nerves, feeling like a small electric current throughout my entire body.
Before I can go back into shock a dull feeling showers over my head as the thoughts in my skull fizzle away into TV static.
.....
After what feels like thirty minutes like that my sense of self comes back and I sit up calmly. The thing that fires through my mind is that they weren't real. This is called Will training for a reason, I have to get it through my thick skull that this experience is to get me used to death.
[Will statistic +2 points][17]
At that notification I can feel the difference those two simple points make to my mental fortitude.
[Are you alright now, Chris?]
"Yeah I think I'm good now, and I've learned an incredibly useful lesson."
"That life is not something you should be afraid to take, if they have the same intention, it's a means of survival."
I rush over to weapon racks. This is a stupid idea.