"What in the 'Fantasy Isekai' bullshit is this?"
Master Chief Matthew Winters looked down at the remains of the little green bastard that had tried, and failed to murder him just a few mere moments ago. The creature had been short, probably no taller than about three feet and it's rough, leathery skin was a sickly green. The thing had made an awful screaming noise before it had tried to charge Matt, which had given him time to react to its attack. It was surprisingly fast though, and he had barely been able to step out of the way of the little steak knife the thing had been using as its weapon in time. Fortunately enough, the creature had put all of its momentum it seemed into the one strike and rushed right past Matthew without any sort of follow up attack after the first charge had missed. Matt had been getting ready to try and counter the creature's next move when the little green shit, still moving with its previous attack motion, tripped over a stone and gutted itself with its own weapon as it fell to the ground.
The little monster then began to scream in pain and agony as it writhed around in its own blood and gore in a rather gruesome scene. Matt had just watched for a few moments in pure disbelief. The creature hadn't pulled the knife out of its stomach and its thrashing was only making the problem worse for it. Matt had to admit, he actually felt sort of… sorry for the little green monster. That was when he walked up to the spot where the creature was still writhing on the ground and decided to put it out of its misery. Now he stood over the remains of the little green bastard with the heel of his boot still covered in its brains.
"Ugh, fucking thing smells like a rotting asshole" Matt murmured to no one in particular as he tried to wipe his boot clean on the ground.
After he had done his best to get most of the disgusting mess off his boot, Matt then knelt down next to the creature he had just curb stomped and began to look over its remains. He could see the creature's ribs and spine on its back as its skin was pulled taught over them. It looked like it had been starved from this angle but Matt remembered the thing had a fat little stomach too when it had been charging him. Its legs were thin and slightly bowed but Matt could see the muscle definition in them and now understood how the little thing moved so fast. It was mostly naked except for a single piece of what looked like leather cloth it wore that covered its ass and genital area. Everything was covered in blood now and Matt could see that in the creature's final moments, the knife had almost completely gutted it with all of its violent thrashing. Lastly, Matt took note of the beings ears. They were long and pointed like that of some fairytale creature and one of them looked like it had had the ear lobe bitten off by something. With that last factor though, Matt came to an uneasy conclusion of what this creature had once been.
"Fucking goblins. Guess that means I really did get my ass Isekai'd" He said as he let out a loud sigh while his shoulders drooped down a little "Okay. Okay. So now what?"
Matthew stood up from his kneeling position and took a look at his surroundings once more. He was standing close to the border of what he assumed was two wheat fields next to one another on a larger farm. The field he was currently in looked like it was in rest for the season, as there was barely any actual wheat growing and small tufts of grass sprouted up from the ground in random spots. The other field looked to be fully grown and ready for harvesting. Though Matt had noticed that the wheat stocks in that field were much taller than he thought wheat could grow. He himself stood at about seven foot two and the top of the wheat stood at easily eight feet tall, if not more. He cocked his head to the side a little as a gentle breeze began blowing through the stocks. The horrid smell of the dead creature at his feet seemed a bit more pungent now with the wind and he felt like he had to take a few steps away as he covered the lower part of his face with his arm.
"Jesus fucking Christ, ain't these things ever heard of a fucking bath?" he grumbled as he looked down at the corpse.
Matt had played enough games in his life growing up to have a pretty good feeling about what it was he was supposed to do with a goblins body after he'd slain it, but he didn't know if he could bring himself to do it. He'd heard of people taking trophies from their kills in the past, both hunters from animals and even humans from one another in some extreme cases. He grimaced a little as he thought of the typical fantasy trope ways of confirming one's kill on a creature or monster and the thought made him feel a little bit queasy. Sure, Matt had seen his fair share of fucked up shit before. Everything from people losing their limbs to being straight up fucking vaporized by an explosive device. He'd seen some shit, but it had always been a part of the job. Even then though, seeing such things were never easy and Matt knew his little pandora's box he kept deep down inside was overflowing with the terrible shit he'd both seen and done in the past. This though, this was… different.
Matt gulped a little as he bent back down to his knee and reached for the knife in his pocket, which he had been happy to learn earlier was still clipped there. He pulled the knife out and flipped the small sharp blade out and he held it tightly in his grasp.
"Just… think of it like skinning a deer back home. A really small, green, ugly…" Matt said to himself as he began to start the gruesome task at hand.
A few minutes later, Matt had a pair of goblin ears in one hand as he held the bloody knife in the other. Surprisingly, it had been a lot easier than he thought it would have been too after he realized the little shit probably would have done much worse to Matt if it had been able to kill him instead. With a sigh, Matt sood up once more, determined to be done with body for good this time. He had wiped his knife's blade off on the loin cloth of the creature before he slid it back into his pocket as he stood and now he just held onto the pair of ears as he looked at them for a moment longer.
"So, I guess I just need to hold on to these until I can find something like a shop or maybe an adventuring guild to sell these too?." He asked himself aloud.
Then, with a flick of Matt's wrist, the goblin ears in his hand disappeared. The ears had disappeared into the set of strange leather bracers Matt found on both of his arms when he'd first come to. At a glance, they looked like any ordinary leather pair of bracers someone wore for stuff like cosplay or larping. However, upon closer examination, one could see they were made of real cowhide leather and had several strange and foreign looking runes and markings all over them. They were the only thing Matt didn't remember having on his person from before he came to this world and try as he might, he couldn't take them off. Though while he had been struggling to do so, Matt found himself feeling parched and briefly wished he had a bottle of water on him. He had been trying to pull his arm free from the bracers and moving his wrists around when low and behold, a bottle appeared within reach of his hands before it fell to the ground when Matt failed to grab it in time. He had stared down at the bottle in disbelief for a moment before he picked it up, opened it, and took a small sip from the contents within. He felt the cool liquid hit his tongue and it wasn't long before he had completely drunk the entire bottle dry.
Matt then spent some time afterwards playing around with the bracers a bit more, learning how to summon and store objects away. He still didn't know exactly what was in the bracers, or if there was a limit to the things he could spawn in essentially but he learned that he could store objects into them when he picked up a rock from the ground and successfully stored it away. Matt was also pleasantly surprised when he was able to not only summon forth things like food and water, but also weapons. He had tried it out by attempting to summon what he thought was a simple dagger at first. He had pictured a some sort of fancy fixed blade knife but instead it summoned forth a more modern day Ka-bar instead. Matt didn't complain though and stored the weapon away before he continued his experiments and began making a list of items he could spawn in so far.
Bottle of water (X1)
Meal Ready to Eat, M.R.E (xUnknown)
Ka-bar Knife (x1)
Black T-shirt (x1)
Glock 19 (x1)
Spare Magazines for Glock (xUnknown)
M60E6 Light Machine gun (x1)
Box Magazine for M60 (x3)
Matt had been able to summon as many Meals Ready to Eat, or M.R.E's, as he could possibly hold and of different varieties too. He didn't know how many he had stored away in the bracers or if it was something that was a part of an infinite pool of items he had. However he soon learned that items like the knife and guns couldn't be duplicated more than once, and he could only summon up to three 100rnd boxes of .308 ammunition for the M60. The other thing was that when he wanted to summon a magazine for his weapons, they'd always spawn in empty unless he purposely summoned them while wishing they were full with ammo. He tested to see if he could summon the magazines with just a few rounds in them instead of a full magazine but anytime he thought of summoning them with any amount of ammo, then they'd always spawn in full.
Matt had been elated at the fact that he could summon forth his trusty companion the M60, or the PIG as he so lovingly used its nickname. It was the modern E6 variant made specifically for special operation groups and it had been his weapon of choice through multiple engagements before he had arrived in this new world. He had only summoned it away for a moment though to see if he could summon forth the rest of his kit when the Goblin had attacked him and put his experimentation on hold. That may have been the reason Matt had been a little too annoyed with the little monster and the reason why he curb stumped it's head in instead of summoning his Glock again and just shooting the little bastard. It had dared to attack him in the middle of his fun, so Matt made sure it had been punished for its sins.
Now, he stood looking down at the bracers on his arms and used them to summon forth the vest that he had been attempting to before. With a flick of his wrists again, a plate carrier suddenly appeared in his hands. It was Multicam like his pants and much to Matthew's pleasure, it had all the pouches, bells, and whistles setup in just the way he liked them. A wide smile grew across his lips as he even saw the distinct morale patch that he had stuck to the front of the carrier.
'Duck Around, And Find Out'
He chuckled softly to himself a little until he noticed the long black antenna looped through the shoulders on the vest. His eyes widened slightly as he saw the AN/PSC-5c Shadowfire long range radio sitting snugly in its pouch. Quickly, Matt tore the radio from its pouch and turned the device on before he keyed the transmitter.
"Bravo One to TOC, how copy?" he called out into the device.
He waited a few moments, waiting for a response but got none. The radio was working as he could hear the faint humming of static in the background. He was transmitting and something was picking up the signal on his channel, but there was no reply. He then switched the channel to his team's internal comms and tried again.
"Any Bravo elements this channel?"
Again, he was met with nothing but silence on the other end. Matt felt his heart sink in his chest as he took a deep breath and made one last desperate attempt as he changed the channel one more time.
"This is Master Chief Matthew Winters of the 342nd Global Armada, calling in the blind. Please, is anyone out there?" he called out
"I am here"
The voice that answered Matt's desperate plea didn't come from the radio in his hands, but sounded as if it was said directly into his ear like a soft whisper from behind him. Matt quickly turned as he flicked his wrist, storing away the radio and the vest while summoning his Glock 19. He brought the weapon up to bare but nothing was behind him. He scanned his immediate surroundings with the Glock up and ready, his finger hovering slightly over the trigger. Suddenly there was another noise from behind him again, this time it sounded like the rustling of grass and a gentle feminine laughter arose in the wind. Matt turned once more and found himself aiming the pistol in his hands at a dark shadow standing amongst the tall stocks of wheat.
Matthew stared hard at the shadowy figure in the wheat but found that the harder he tried to stare at the form, the more blurry the object in question became. He frowned and tightened his hold on his weapon as he took aim down the sights. The wind gently blew the wheat stocks and made them sway back and forth but Matt still couldn't see the figure any clearer. Whatever it was, it looked big.
The shadowy form was at least his height if not bigger from what he could gauge and when he looked away and focused his attention anywhere but on the form itself, he would just be able to make out a little more of its definition. It wasn't enough for him to tell what exactly it was he was looking at but it gave him a sense that whatever he was looking at was at least real. Then, there was the crushing weight Matt felt deep in his gut. A sense of heavy dread overcame him a little and for a moment he thought about turning tail and running in the other direction. He took a moment and steeled his will though and continued to stand his ground as a bead of sweat rolled down his brow. Matt no longer had to see whatever he was looking at to tell that this thing was dangerous as hell. And that… excited him a little.
"Are you so mad that you'd smile in the face of what could be your certain death? Or is that you are too feeble minded and unable to understand your own feelings and are perhaps incapable of speech?" the feminine voice said once more.
This time the voice came from the direction of the massive shadowy form in front of Matthew. It was true, Matt now had a broad smile plastered on his face. That was only because he, like many others in his profession, were adrenaline junkies. Always seeking that higher high of adrenaline that came when struck with the fear of certain death as the voice had put it, and doing their best to concur it. Matt felt as if this being, whatever it was, could have easily killed him in the matter of a few mere moments before Matthew even realized what was going on. He felt like he was looking directly down the barrel of a loaded gun back in the sandbox that was the Middle East back in the world he had come from. He was standing on the edge of death, but to him, it was nothing more than a new hill to concur. However, Matthew wasn't suicidal, and he wagered that if the being before him wanted him dead then he'd probably already be so. Instead it was attempting to speak with him in a rather, alluring feminine voice that he wasn't even sure if it was its real voice and not some trick to lure him into some sort of trap. So for now, Matt decided to play along and see where this walk along this new edge of death would bring him.
"No ma'am, I don't believe I'm feeble minded at all, as you put it."
"Ah, so it seems the giant can speak."
There was a hint of laughter in the creature's voice and Matt could tell that it had been somewhat amused by his response. The thing that surprised Matt though was that the being spoke in English. Though it spoke with an old English accent that one might use at Renfaire back in the world he came from to try and pick some hot fairy chick. Hey, don't shame. Matt could also tell that though they spoke in complete sentences, it was clear that English was also not their first language. The small bits of linguistics he had picked over the years from the number of places he had been to as well as interpreters he had spoken to, made that clear.
"So tell me then giant, what business do you have in these fields?" the voice asked
"I was only passing by. Or at least I had been until this little shit decided to attack me" Matt replied and used the side of his boot to kick the goblins corpse beside him without ever taking his eyes off the shadowy figure.
"Why were you passing through a field when the roads are much safer to travel?"
Matthew paused for a moment and tried to consider his response but after a moment or two, he simply shrugged and replied "Ain't no fun in always playing it safe"
The noise the creature made after hearing Matthews reply was… genuine. Matt heard her laugh at his answer and he had to admit, she sounded cute as hell. Her laugh caused him to lower his weapon a little, still holding it in his hands though as he no longer pointed it directly in the figure's direction, but he remained on guard. He wasn't stupid, all this could have been a ploy from the start to get him to lower his guard enough for the entity in the wheat to have a window of opportunity to attack him. And though he didn't see any other creatures around, he didn't rule out the possibility that there might be something else around close by that might be working with the being he was talking with to distract him while the other pounced. Matt had only lowered his weapon a little too perhaps speed the process up a little more. If another being was going to attack, then he had just given it its window. However, no such attack ever came as the feminine voice coming from the still shadowy obscured form continued to laugh for a little bit longer before audibly taking a moment to collect themselves.
"My apologies for my behavior. Your answer is not an uncommon sentiment amongst many adventurers these days. However the way in which you replied seemed more genuine then most. It also explains why you didn't flee when I forced my aura on you. Most others would have given into their fear and run but you not only stood your ground but you turned ready for a fight, and with a smile on your face nonetheless. Tell me giant, what is your name?"
Matt watched as the beings' obscured figure began to almost solidify a little more as the creature spoke, and he was able to make out a more general outline now. This thing looked like a giant fur ball with a slightly orange coloration to it that stood out a bit from the wheat stocks. Matt felt like he was the one getting the creature to lower its guard a little now, so he kept the conversation going in hopes that it'd fully reveal itself sooner rather than later.
"The name's Matthew Winters, but most people just call me Matt. Do I get the pleasure of knowing your name?"
There was a brief moment of silence before the creature replied in an almost sing-song way with that alluring feminine voice, "You may."
Just then, the shadowy veil that covered the creature suddenly vanished, revealing it's true form to Matthew as the being stepped forward and away from the wheat for a few steps. She was absolutely, jaw droppingly, something elsely, fucking gorgeous. That sort of drop dead gorgeousness one could only find on the cover of magazines or in some sort of perverted anime show. Matt couldn't help but look at the woman with surprise as she smiled in that mischievous way that made your heart skip a few beats. She stood with her hand on her hip and she had shifted her weight a little to one side. Her long orange colored hair slid down over her shoulders and strands gently blew in the breeze as if she was posing for a photo shoot. Her green eyes gleamed a little in the light of the day's sun and Matt could see the same mischievous energy deep within them that her smile had as she locked eyes with him. What really drew Matthews attention though were the nine, fox-like tails that swayed behind her slowly turning from orange to a blue sapphire color like diamonds reflecting the sun's rays and a pair of long, black, furry ears stood on top of her head and twitched ever so slightly.
'Holy shit. She's a fucking god damn Kitsune or something' Matt thought to himself.
The sheer size and number of her tails had added to the illusion of her massive size before but her actual body was slightly below the average female height for women back on Earth. However, she was wearing a pair of taller heels that made her look a little bit taller than she actually was. She wore what looked like a set of black leather clothing that hugged her womanly figure rather tightly, not leaving too much to the imagination. The top also had a deep V cut down the center that showed off her sizable bust. It was then Matt realized that with an outfit like that on, she knew exactly what the hell she was doing. She also had a brown leather cloak over her shoulders that she held back with her arms and the hood rested on her shoulders and back. Again, she was absolutely stunning, and that smile on her thin lips and gleam in her eyes told Matt that she was dangerous in more ways than one.
"My name is Akira of Venindale, and it is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Winters."
Matt admittedly took a few more awkward moments to reply than he should have. He couldn't help it really, and he bet he'd be hard pressed to find anyone else who wouldn't have done the same thing. She was really just that beautiful.
"L-Likewise." was all he was able to say though.
The fox lady giggled cutely a little at how clearly flustered she had made the giant man before her. Matt cleared his throat a little and lowered the Glock a bit more and even debated holstering it for a moment. The woman's looks weren't the only thing dangerous about her and Matt had a sneaking feeling in the pit of his stomach that if she wanted him dead, then there would have been very little he could have done to stop her. He even doubted he'd be able to squeeze off a wild shot with the Glock before she was able to kill him.
When she had first revealed her true form to Matt, the first thing he had noticed was the leather belt and satchel at her side lined with what looked like daggers and small throwing needles. With the way she so casually stood, her hands resting on her hips just above her weapons and Matt got the feeling she was confident enough in her own abilities to take him down before he even had a chance to retaliate. He guessed he could count his lucky stars that she hadn't just decided to kill him yet. So instead of continuing to point his weapon at her and further risk her deciding as such, he lowered his weapon. He didn't holster it though, just in case.
"Please forgive me once more, but would you mind if I asked you a bit of a personal question? And I'd appreciate it if you answered me as honestly as possible." Akira said as she stared deeper into Matt's eyes.
Something about her seemed to suddenly… change a little. That feeling in his stomach from before returned and he felt like a massive weight had just been put on his shoulders by some sort of invisible force around him. However, Matt stood his ground once again and only stared back into the woman's eyes before he simply gave her a nod. As soon as he did, the heavy weight around him began to lighten up a little and the smile on Akira's lips grew for a moment before she took a more serious disposition.
"You wouldn't happen to be human… now would you?"
That honestly threw Matthew for a little bit of a loop for a moment as he rose an eyebrow to her question. He thought it may have been obvious that he was before. True he was freakishly tall compared to most other people he knew but he didn't think he could be mistaken for being anything other than human. Maybe there were other races in this world he didn't know about that looked human but were abnormally bigger. There were a few races like that in video games and such that Matt remembered, so maybe she thought he was something like that?
He looked back into the woman's eyes for a moment, trying to see if she was perhaps just messing around with him a little but the look in her eyes told him she was dead serious now. He was starting to think now that this chick was super fucking scary, and he had to admit, he was liking her more and more.
"I am. Or at least that's what I've been told. I just made sure to eat all my wheaties" Matthew laughed as he flexed his arm a little, making his well toned bicep bulge out slightly in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere just a little.
Matt watched as Akira took a step backwards and recoiled a bit as if his words had just suckerpunched her in the stomach. She looked surprised with her wide green eyes looking at him in shock. Her many tails stood rigid behind her as her eyes darted back and forth over his face as if looking for some sign of his jest. She must have seen he was indeed serious too because she then turned from him slightly, holding her chin gently and staring into the empty space on the ground as if deep in pondering thought. Her tails wiping back and forth aggressively as her ears laid flat. Matt could hear her mumbling a little to herself but he was unable to make out what she was saying.
"I'm sorry. Is that… a bad thing?" Matt suddenly asked, feeling a bit more concerned by her reaction.
"It might be, at least for a little bit" she answered vaguely as she still seemed to be thinking to herself.
"Why would me being human be a bad thing? Aren't there other humans around?" Matt asked.
Of course there were other humans around. There was always humanity in every fantasy setting he'd ever seen or heard about. Sure, some may have been on the verge of just barely being human and such but nonetheless, humans everywhere. But… maybe that wasn't the case judging by the strained look the fox lady had on her face as she looked over at him.
"No fucking way," Matt said aghast.
"Humanity hasn't existed in this world for nearly… five millennia now" Akira replied with a gentle tone as if she was breaking the bad news to him that both of his legs had been blown off and that he'd never figure skate ever again.
Matt stood looking at her, absolutely dumbfounded. At first he thought she was pulling his chain. There was no fucking way he ended up in a world without humans. But something in him said, she was telling him the truth as she knew it to be. That… that crushed him a little on the inside but he didn't know why. Maybe it was thought there was no one else like him in the world around, no one who knew what it meant to be human or whatever the fuck that meant. Matt didn't know why he felt like he'd just suffered some great loss, but he did.
"Well… fuck," was all Matt could say for a moment before his brow narrowed a little "Wait. Wait. If humanity doesn't exist here then how did you think to ask me if I was human?"
Akira's shoulders dropped a little as she let out a sigh. Her tails now moved much slower behind her as her ears remained flattened. She took a moment to look up to the skies above before she collected herself and took up the pose she had been standing in before with her hands on her hips.
"That's because I was… am destined to help lead humanity back into the world of Tytaura" she replied.
"E-Excuse me?" Matthew asked, feeling more confused than ever now.
"My name is Akira of Venindale but I am also the Matriarch of the Venindale province and one of the last of the Kitsune race. I was raised not only to be the leader of the different races under my charge, but to also assist the human of legend when he appeared in the fields of Harvest, walking the line of both death and life of a farmer's fields." Akira explained and motioned to both the dead field in which they both currently stood in and the field behind her with fully grown crops.
"The… human of legend?" Matt asked a little incredulously.
"Yes. A human man who is fated to lead humanity back to Tytaura and to help save the world from assured destruction or whatever" Akira replied but said so in a way that led Matt to think she herself didn't completely believe in what she had just told him.
"Why does it feel like you think that's a bunch of bullshit?"
"Because. Because… I honestly didn't think the legends were ever even true myself. You see, every Matriarch of my kind before me was taught and raised to believe in the same thing. Each of them told them that they'd be the ones to help guide the hero to their destined future, but the so-called fabled hero never came. Even my predecessor treated the legend as if it was some old wives tale. I never thought that they might be… true."
Akira stood with her arms folded over her chest as she bit her nail on her thumb and stared off into space, deep in thought. Matt watched her but was deep in his own thoughts as went over what he had just been told in his mind.
"Look, I'm sorry but, I'm ain't some hero of some fabled legend or anything like that." Matt replied.
To Matt's surprise, the fox woman actually looked slightly relieved at his words. A much softer and gentle smile crossed her lips this time as she turned to look at him and Matt could see her shoulders relax a little. He didn't understand why though and was about to ask when Akira spoke up instead.
"Well whether the legends are true or not, it's plain to see that your clearly not from around here" she said as she casually regained her confidence with her amazing smile "So since technically it's supposed to be my job to help you or whatever, at least allow me to be your guide for a little bit."
She stood with her hands on her hips once again and the way she spoke made Matt feel as if he had little to no real choice in the matter. To say he was confused, was an understatement. However, there was one thing he knew of for sure. He had found his new edge.