Chapter 199: Days Past

For Landin, that day in the store was a nightmare.

He had come home from school like any other day, went to the corner store to grab a snack on the way home, passing the kids and adults who used the shop as a hangout. His headphones blasted classic jazz into his ears. Several people smoking on the curb as he went in.

"Landin? Schools out already?" the man at the counter asked.

"Same time as yesterday bro…" he replied.

Landin walked back to the end looking for an energy drink like usual when his vision faded for an instant, a bat of exhaustion and weariness overtaking him.

He blinked.

The next moment he was fine, shaking it off with a turn of his head. He opened the door but the storage wasn't on, the familiar humming of the electricity nowhere to be heard. But the area was still as cold as it should be, in fact, the entire store was freezing. He turned around to tell the guy at the counter.

"Hey! Your fridge isn't….What the?!" 

Landin looked around, the shop was torn in half, snow drifting in through the cracks in the building, and a large tree shooting up out of the ground from the base.

"W-what happened? Am I dreaming?" Landin muttered, his hand beginning to tighten around the drink.

He quickly turned hearing the door at the front jingle. His eyes bulged as he saw what was entering the shop. It was a woman dressed in full plate armor that looked like it was right out of a game, in her hand a huge metal mace, a red liquid dripping from it.

Landin's body froze, his pulse beginning to race faster than an F-1 car taking off from the start line.

"This has to be a dream right..?"

"Oh? Someone is inside? Oh… don't you look like a treat…" the woman snickered.

"Lady, I don't know what's going on but please. I'm just a kid. I don't know if this is some sort of movie or what but I just want to go home alright?"

"You aren't going anywhere but with me boy. You can join the other pretty kids I've been picking up around the neighborhood…"

The woman smiled as she stepped closer to Landin, cornering him in the back of the store. She stopped abruptly in front of him pulling a bag out of nowhere. Leaning in she tilted the open sac, presenting the insides.

"You can all have a good time... Traveling with me," she said, laughing softly but it quickly turned to a crazed cackle.

"W-what the fuck!?" Landin screamed seeing inside the bag as it slowly dripped onto the floor.

Inside were the heads of several people, their faces all frozen in fear.

Landin's mind went blank as he panicked his eyes sweeping the store for an escape or anything to use to defend himself. He desperately began grabbing and throwing anything he could at her.

"Get the fuck away! You crazy bitch! I ain't trying to end up in a horror film!" he screamed his hands never stopping as they tossed whatever he could get his hands on.

The woman's face twisted into anger.

"No one calls me crazy! I'm not crazy! Why won't any of these worthless people just be with me! You're going to make me do this! It's your fault! It's your fault!!" she howled.

The woman raised her mace bringing it down with a broken laugh on Landin. 

He wasn't the most athletic but years of skating and running around the neighborhood had given him more athletic ability than most. At the last second, he lunged out of the way but only in time to avert a fatal blow.

The spiked mace had clipped his leg tearing it open. Landin screamed in pain as he tumbled into a nearby shelf, knocking it over.

His face paled as he looked at his torn-up leg then back to the crazy woman as she walked over languidly a demented look in her eyes.

"You did this to yourself, boy, you could have just come with me…" she mumbled.

"P-please I'm sorry! I didn't mean to call you that! I was- I was just scared! Please let me go!" Landin pleaded.

The woman wasn't hearing it. She raised her mace again with both hands, preparing to bring it down again on the immobile Landin.

He screamed closing his eyes and raising his arms in defense.

Is this how it ends?! Please, someone! He screamed internally waiting for the blow that would end his life.

But it never came. Landin opened his eyes slowly. In front of him was a man in a gray hoodie his arm raised, holding the woman's mace at bay. In his other a long well-made staff.

"You ok kid?" the man asked.

"D-do I look ok..?" Landin said absentmindedly, his face grimacing from the pain.

"Well, it looks like just a scratch to me. I've seen worse."

"Worse than this?!"

"Oh yeah. Anyway, there's nothing to worry about now. No one is going to hurt you," the man said turning, a half mask with teeth holding a sword, his eyes shifting colors looking right back at Landin.

The man tossed a small red vial at Landin.

"Drink it."

"Is it poison?" Landin asked.

The man didn't answer. The woman had begun struggling against him, pulling back her mace.

"Who the fuck are you?! You're pretty cute yourself there boy! Want to come with me too, do you?!" she sneered.

"Sorry, I don't date women over 30. Especially ugly, fat, crazy, children beating weirdos."

The woman's face reddened considerably, as she disappeared for a second from Landin's view. The next she was in the air her mace raised as it glowed a sinister red.

The man didn't move in the slightest, forcing Landin to cry out.

"Watch out!"

The man snapped his fingers and then it was over. The ground erupted as spikes of black earth pierced the store and the woman in mid-air.

"This new world doesn't need predators like you. Burn."

The man snapped his fingers again white flames sparking to life as it incinerated the woman to ash in an instant. A few seconds later a bright light flickered in and out of existence dropping what looked like a few bags onto the floor.

Picking up the bags, the man somehow made them disappear before Landin was able to hear him click his tongue.

"Another depraved lunatic… Did the tutorial really just bring out the worst in people…" the man sighed, turning back around, "Still haven't downed the potion?"

—-----------------

Landin's eyes fluttered open, an unfamiliar tan canvas above him. The sounds of rustling outside and the crunching of snow.

"Another nightmare…" he mumbled, placing his arm on his forehead, feeling the slight sweat that had formed.

"Landin?" a voice called from outside.

Getting up, and using the clothes that Drake had given him. Landin changed and stepped outside. The voice belonged to Charlotte, another one of the people Drake had saved in the city.

"Morning," Landin said, putting on a smile.

"Morning. Drake wants us to go to the other side of the camp," she answered back.

Landin looked to her side, "Did he say to bring your brother? Hi by the way. Brodie right?"

The little boy didn't reply just gripped the edges of Charlotte's shirt.

"Hey, be polite say hi back," Charlotte reprimanded, "Sorry he's still just… Shook up. Drake didn't say I couldn't bring him. I just… Don't know who I can trust to watch him, he's still young."

Landin shrugged, "Doesn't hurt to bring him. I don't think Drake would let anything happen to him. Janey coming?"

Charlotte shook her head, "Don't think so, she's with her brother and taking care of the baby as well. She's really taken a liking to the little guy."

"Well, better get there before he comes and finds us… I don't want to hear him joke so early in the morning but…." Landin sighed, "Man it's colder than usual too…"

—-------------

Drake flicked his wrist sending out another round of lightning spears into the crowd of monsters coming at him and the makeshift wall of earth he had made.

"At least we won't be short on monster cores anytime soon… Not that I know what to do with them other than just craft stuff and turn it into coins," he sighed then turned around noticing the group coming closer, "About time. I sent for you like 20 minutes ago, days wasting kiddos! And what's with the add-on?"

"He's not an add-on, this is my brother, Brodie," Charlotte shouted back, frowning.

"Yeah and he's too young to see what we're going to do," Drake looked over to Sah Ul', " Can you take the boy back, leave him with someone you trust."

Sah Ul' shook her head, "Will not let Patriarch leave sight again."

Drake sighed, "Really? Then you're guarding the kid. Don't let him get hurt or it's gonna be your ass. Your very muscular... Sculpted… What was I saying?" Drake coughed, shaking his own head from his thoughts.

I really have awoken to muscle women, haven't I… Forgive me, Claire. I'm trying my hardest… Drake thought, slapping himself.

Bad Drake! Bad! It's a fake marriage!

"You ok dude?" Landin asked.

"Perfectly fine…" Drake answered tersely.

"Right…. If you say so…"

"Where are you two on finding other people?" Drake asked, changing the subject.

"Nowhere. There aren't many people who are 16. There are a few 15-year-olds but it will be a while before they turn. Even then not everyone is eager to join a fighting force after everything they've seen…" Landin explained.

"Makes sense. I wasn't expecting much but that puts a wrench in my plans… Sarah," Drake addressed, " Are there any young Orcs willing to learn under me you think?"

"Learn from Patriarch?" she said, taking a moment to think on it, "Coming of age is young for Rahk Tribe. Born warriors are trained from young age until first hunt at 12 full seasons."

"12 Seasons being 12 years I'm guessing..?" Drake asked, "Ok then, are there any 16 Full Season warriors in the tribe right now."

Sah Ul' nodded.

"Good, can you round them up for me? I want to see what kind of stock I'm working with. You three," Drake pointed, "Get up here. And here."

Drake threw the three notepads and pens.

"What are we going to do with these?" Charlotte asked.

"You are going to study."

"Study…?" Landin parroted.

"Yup, study. Study monsters. You both can't fight just yet and I don't have time to train you while the crystal is anchoring. So you are going to help me learn and write down everything we can about the local monsters until then. You two are going to become the pillars of this place."

"I don't like how he said that…" Landin grimaced.

"Come on it won't be that bad, just watch as I defend our very lives and home while you document every moment," Drake chuckled.

"This reminds me of a book I saw in the camp… And do you know what the Dazzling Tyrant Card Game is..?" Charlotte asked, stepping up onto the wall, "W-what is this….?"

Charlotte had forgotten about her previous question looking out into the field in front of her, bodies of monsters stacked high in the distance all along the wall.

"Hmm? This is pretty slow, they were coming in droves during the night but it's gone to a trickle right now," Drake answered casually, "Don't worry I won't make you get the cores from these, we'll need the bodies intact for the warsmith and for a friend that I'll have to pick up soon."

Charlotte gave a sigh of relief only to be surprised by Landin who came up behind her.

"Whoa! Dude how in the world did you do all this? After the bird, I didn't think I'd be surprised but you just keep doing more. What are you some kind of Main Character in a story?" Landin exclaimed, obviously surprised.

"Maybe. But it's a bit early to be surprised young Landin," Drake asked, "How long until you're 16 you said a few weeks?"

"Yeah, a week give or take I'd say."

Drake pressed his hand to his chin but quickly had to wave his hand, a new group of monsters storming through. In an instant spears of ice manifested above him and with another motion of his hand they flew out spearing the monsters to the ground, freezing them into place.

"That's a new one… Mana Cat. I'll have to take a closer look, it's hard to say what it's weak to when most things die in one spell.." Drake sighed, " You still here?" Drake asked, looking at Sah Ul', "Didn't I ask you to go get some people."

"Sah Ul' is not servant," she scoffed angrily, one of her tusks poking out of her mouth.

Drake clicked his tongue.

"I can't even get a moment without you now huh? It's only been a day if that and I'm already ball and chained huh… Fine, I'll ask your Father instead."

Drake snapped his finger an Elemental springing to life at the bottom of the wall.

"Go bring me Rvul, I have a lot to ask him."

The Elemental wordlessly walked in the direction of the tribe's encampment.

"Well that's that…" Drake sighed, hearing a notification go off in his ears.

[Atticus Wallen is the first to complete the anchoring of their Honing Crystal]

[The city 'Purity' has now been established and recognized by the system]

"Purity… Well, I hate to admit it but it looks like that really is Atticus…. He hasn't changed has he…"

Drake's jaw clenched his emotions leaking out into his aura for a moment as he pressed his palm out to the new group of monsters encroaching on the wall.

"Piss off."

A blast of potent fire sparked to life from a scarlet magic circle in his hand incinerating everything in its path. Snow, grass, trees, monsters, and the corpses of the previous monsters.

Landin looked over as he pointed at the destruction.

"Didn't you just tell us you needed those…?"

"Fuck!" Drake cursed.