Demonkin Survivors

Mike slowly opened his eyes. He was in a dark room and noticed he was sleeping on a bed on the floor. There was no one else in the room with him, but all his equipment and gear were still with him. He assumed Nemia brought him here after he collapsed.

He got out of the bed and grabbed his stuff. He wasn't sure if he would be kicked out or able to stay. Wherever he was.

The wooden door creaked as he opened it. The stone hallway was well lit by a series of candles on the wall. He was in a room at the end of the hallway and heard muffled voices coming from the other end. He followed the voices and was lead to a huge room. The best Mike could tell was he was inside the castle that was in the middle of the city. The main room of the castle had been turned into a large sleeping and eating area. There were nearly 30 Demonkin of varies ages sitting around a large fire with a pot hung over it. They all turned to look at Mike as he entered the room.

"Mike! Glad you're awake. Come over and meet the survivors of Evermore."

Mike walked over to the group of Demonkin. They were very wary of him as man humans hated Demonkin based off of their appearances. As Mike got closer the younger members moved away while the older one's of the group eyed him with hate and distain. As soon as Mike got closer to the group he bowed before them.

"I wish to thank you all for taking me in. You had no reason to take me in and save me, and I wish to thank you all for that."

This caught the group off guard. Most of the older folk had dealt with hateful humans, and other races, and weren't used to a kind human. Seeing his people's reaction the Elder stood up and clasped Mike's hands.

"There's no need to thank us child" the Elder spoke with kindness in his voice. "With the undead threatening our very planet, and maybe more planets, we need all the help we can get. Human, Demi or anything in between. We are all comrades in arms against a common threat. Now please sit and eat with us. We have much to talk about." He gestured with his hands to a wooden bench next to where the Elder was sitting.

Mike took a seat as the Elder sat next to him.

"I am Elder Karthus. I was the advisor to the king here in Evermore. How much of the events that has transpired here do you know?"

Nemia had handed Mike a bowl of soup as the Elder talked to him. As he blew on his soup to cool it down he spoke. "Well I must be honest with you" Mike said as he took a bite. "I have just arrived. I was sent here by the Goddess of Reincarnation to fight the Lich that is plaguing this universe. I have no knowledge of this world or universe."

Everyone was taken aback. They have never heard of this Goddess and wasn't sure if Mike was lying or not. The only one's that believed him were Nemia and Elder Karthus. Nemia had seen Mike use healing magic in his previous fight and Elder Karthus could sense Holy Magic from him, for he was a Shaman.

"I won't explain everything as it would be too much information. All you need to know is this." The Elder's voice became solemn as he spoke. "We live on a rural planet that is not as advance as other planets belonging to the Elves, Dwarves or Humans. We Demonkin are part of the Demi race. Humanoid races with vastly different appearances and our own cultures. We live on planet Drumand. This city was a capital. The Spaceport was build on the opposite side of the world as the starships would create loud noise when entering the planet, and the king hated the noise. When the undead invaded our only Starport, our churches lead a march with clerics, paladins and other knightly orders of the kingdom to stop it. They failed."

The Elder and the rest of the survivors had sunken expressions. The undead invasion had only happened a few months ago, but they all witnessed it first hand. Much death plagued the world. They had seen family members, friends and neighbors be killed in front their eyes. They knew there wore more survivors world wide, but their population had dwindled to an all time low.

"Once the Holy One's failed the King of the planet banded all the forces together to face the threat. Being as his advisor and a Shaman, I went with them." The Elder's face darkened even more. He had been on the front lines and saw the horror of the undead. "The undead were lead by a Death Knight. We knew about the Lich and her forces, but never thought she would send her army here. I watched as the Death Knight personally killed the king. I was powerless. Once the king was dead the armies fled. Many were slaughtered, but I managed to save a few. Nemia was a mage in the army."

3 more Demonkin stood up with sunken expressions.

" I am Tal' Va. I was a Warrior in the Kings second battalion" of the Demonkin spoke. He was a tall dark green skin Demonkin. He had a very muscular build, no hair and four large horns coming out the sides of his head. He had a deadly glaive on his back. "These two were on the same squad with me when Elder Karthus saved us." He had motioned to the other two Demonkin next to him.

One was shorter then the other two, but had a very lean build. He had light grey skin, yellow eyes like Tal'Va, short blue hair and two pointed horns going forward. "I'm Jiv. I'm an Archer.'

The other one next to them wore brown robs. He had black skin, deep red eyes and his two horns held his hood out of his face. "I'm Nuva. I'm a Warden."

"So what are your classes" Mike asked. "I understand what a Warrior and Archer is. I assume you both have skills regarding your weapons, but I'm at a loss for the Warden and Shaman." Mike was honestly lost with these classes. He wanted to understand what they were.

"We've said much about us" Elder Karthus said. "How about you tell us about your class. I know of Clerics, Paladins, Inquisitor and the Holy Knights, but never heard of yours."

Mike had just finished his bowl of food and wiped his mouth. "I am a General Crusader. I don't know much about my class, but I'm able to use [Holy magic], [Farming], and [Base Building] as some of my skills. I haven't learned many skills, but my class seems to be a supportive fighter. My guess."

The Demonkin looked at him confusingly.

"You really have the [Base Building] skill" Nuva asked. "That's one of the basic skills needed to become a Warden."

"And your [Farming] skill is also the basic needed skill for a Shaman. Are you able to learn other skill if we were to teach you" Elder Karthus asked inquisitively. He had never met someone with such a class. Being able to learn skills from other classes is a huge boon.

"You see my child" Elder Karthus began to sound like a teacher as he spoke. "The Warden is a class that specializes in creating magical formations for defense or offensive as traps. They are the ones to build bases using magic. A reason we don't have zombies here in the main castle is because of Nuva. He created magical formations that confuses the undead so they can not reach this location.'

"While your [Farming] skill is a basic for a Shaman. We Shaman's use the power of nature to support others. We grow our own ingredients to create potions and elixirs to support allies. We also use our magic to support, by making allies stronger or weakening the enemy to an element."

Mike nodded hearing all this. He was happy to have been taken in by these people. He was learning a lot.

As the night drew on the kids and elder started to claim their rooms and go to sleep. Nemia, the other warriors, Mike and the Elder were the only one's still awake. Nuva, Tal' Va and Jiv stated they would stand guard first. Even with the formations created by Nuva, they still had to guard a very large castle.

With only Mike, Nemia and Elder Karthus reaming the three talked more for a few hours. Mike was quite interested in the world and the universe. Thankfully for him Elder Karthus was more then happy to oblige. He was an advisor to the King, but also a teacher. He greatly missed teaching. He was happy to do this small favor.

Mike had learned that each race had their own planets, but Humans, Dwarves and Elves were the most powerful races. They treated other demi races as workers and paid them less. Mike absorbed the information like a child. He learned that there were thousands of planets under the control of the Big 3, as they were called, and the demi humans would settle on these worlds and pay a tax to whoever owned the planet. The Demonkin of this planet had recently bought this planet from the dwarves. Which was a reason why they didn't receive any help from the undead invasion.

When the topic moved to magic Nemia was the one who talked the most. Even though Elder Karthus is a Shaman, he knows more of natural magic. Nemia is an actual mage and knows the basics. She was happy to teach Mike fire magic, as it was the most effective against the undead. Unfortunately for her Dark magic is the least affective against the undead. She mainly learned it as she would be a Mage Hunter and Dark magic is extremely effective against living enemies.

Nemia had her hand outstretched with a fire floating above her palm. "Now Mike. For the basic of magic you must feel the mana in your body move and shape into the form you wish for it to take. Take fire for example." She began to toss the fire ball between each hand. "Fire is destructive and wild. It is the hardest of the base elements to control. But it is also light and a source of life. If you can use magic let's see if you can use fire magic."

Mike listened to Nemia and closed his eyes. He sat crossed legged on the ground with his open hands facing upwards. Nemia's words repeated in his head. He wasn't entirely sure what he should be feeling. When he used his holy magic he didn't feel anything. He just thought it and just did it. He tried to feel the mana in his body. He thought about what fire was. He tried to focus on creating fire above his hands.

He could feel the mana in his body swirl around and flow into his hands. He started to grin as he felt the mana get quicker and hotter. As soon as he opened his eyes to cheer at his talent only smoke bellowed out of his hands.

Nemia and Elder Karthus chuckled at this. "It won't happen on your first try Mike" Nemia said softly. "It's already amazing you can get smoke on your fist try. It took me a month before I could get even that much."

"You do have quite a talent" Elder Karthus spoke with a smile. "Seeing you have this talent gives me hope we can survive this and leave this planet."

As the 3 sat around they heard loud footsteps coming from outside. Mike had halted his training as the other two prepared themselves.

BOOOM

The large double doors leading to their room burst open with great force!

Nuva and Jiv struggled to carry Tal' Va inside. He looked badly wounded and had dozens of bit marks.

"Help! We were attacked by a group of Ghouls! Tal jumped to protect us." Nuva spoke with a panicked voice. "We managed to fend them off, but Tal got bitten!"