Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Naea had never been counselled on how to behave in a police interview, so she was more than happy to share Grant’s life story. Surely he wouldn’t mind, Naea was certain. It was nice when people knew how special you were, and Grant was as special as any human she had ever met. The small group listened intently, enraptured by her quality storytelling.

“So, Grant was born in Ireland and has a nice big family there still, hopefully. He’s worried about them, and when we’re done here we’ll go and find them and make sure they’re safe. Two older brothers, a little brother and two little sisters! I’m so jealous, do any of you have siblings?” Nolan and Rashid shook their heads, though Rashid did so with a sad expression that made Naea feel bad for asking. Fortunately, the other two hadn’t noticed.

“We’re brothers, actually,” Larry said. Though Naea wasn’t very knowledgeable on humans and generally thought they all looked the same, even she might have guessed that. Their features weren’t particularly similar, but their expressions were. She smiled brightly at them before continuing.

“Anyway, Grant and I met in a dungeon. Our dungeon,” Naea added with a glare at the room. She hadn’t realised how protective she was of that time with Grant until just now. Maybe she wouldn’t tell them everything. “Which is gone now. Grant started the Shift within and he met me. I’m Grant’s familiar now, because he nearly died and I needed to help him but it’s the best! We kicked that dungeon’s butt, beating one of the dungeon bosses before the System got angry and changed everything. We still won, but it was harder.

“Ummmm, what else… well, he’s really strong obviously.” Should Naea tell them about Steel Sovereign? She could feel its presence like a needle against her skin, not hurting but ready to pierce the protections around Grant at a moment’s notice. Even though the intention behind Steel’s attention was arguably well placed, Naea still disliked the new addition to her bond with Grant. “We’ve been beating up quest bosses and stuff since for the most part, training some of the others. They’re still just Fledglings, but maybe one day they’ll be worth something.” Naea put her finger to her small chin, pondering. Was there anything else worth talking about so that Grant wouldn’t need to explain later?

“When you say others, who do you mean?” Nolan asked through a clenched jaw. His skin had gone pale and his nostrils were flaring.

“The other people living in Ascentown,” Naea answered easily.

“And what is Ascentown?” Nolan asked. Naea froze, suddenly unsure of whether she had been oversharing. The fear in the man’s voice was unmistakable, even if Naea was a little overwhelmed. Had she made a mistake? Before she could answer, the merchant raised a hand to interject.

“Ah, I believe it is the town which Grant and… this fine lady have established.” Relief flooded Naea as she remembered Grant explaining all of this to Rashid. If it was a secret, then it wasn’t Naea who had shared it first. She nodded confirmation and the man continued. “Ah, you remember I told you Grant saved me from being harassed last night, yes, Nolan? Well, he thought it might not be safe for me once he left so he gave me directions towards his settlement.”

“Wouldn’t you just die on the way?” Morris asked, adding a touch of morbidity to the moment. Naea and Rashid both laughed, but she received an odd look for it. Naea shrugged. It was funny that Grant had given the man directions to somewhere ‘safe’ while forgetting it might cost him his life to get there.

“Not if there were more people who wanted to make the journey.” Rashid’s statement inflected at the end, almost a question to the room. No one jumped forward to escort the man, but the idea wasn’t dismissed either. “I don’t know what Grant’s plan was in giving me directions, but… it feels like a challenge. I want to see his town. That’s my next step, if I can manage it. I’d rather do that with good news than bad, though.”

“Bad news like Grant being locked under this building until someone lets him out?” Morris asked, to which Rashid nodded. Naea snorted and found curious eyes looking her way.

“It’s just funny that you think Grant is trapped. You’ve really got no idea who he is.” Naea couldn’t help herself. They were talking like any of this theatre mattered. The fact that no one had gone to fix things with Grant was going to be working against them. If they thought walls would stop him from doing what he wanted, they didn’t know the first thing about Grant.

“Are you saying that he’s going to break out?” Nolan demanded, stepping to his feet. This was a man thing, where they thought being big was the same as being scary. The issue was that Naea had been small her whole life, and had killed things much bigger and scarier than Nolan.

She wasn’t intimidated, rolling her eyes and shrugging. “If he wanted to break out, he wouldn’t have been taken captive in the first place. I think Grant’s trying to give this town a chance, but I’m only guessing.” She thought this was all very silly. Grant was less than twenty metres from them, down some stairs. They should just talk to him.

“A chance for what?” Larry asked, frowning. He hugged himself tightly in his puffy coat, even inside the warm room.

“A chance to prove you’re not just an obstacle? We’re only here because someone said that we could find an aeroplane somewhere. Like I said, Grant has a family out there he needs to make sure is safe.” Naea shrugged again. “Do you seriously think some enchanted walls will be enough to stop him if he thinks you’re not going to help?”

———————————————————————

Since being thrown into the cramped space below the Hammersmith Police Station, I had memorised its every dimension and quirk. There was enough room for a cot and a toilet, both a little too close together for my personal comfort levels. There were no windows, as I was firmly underground. The grey rock of the wall was not standard to any recent British architecture, and carried the hazy effect of being System made when I looked at it. There were a few cracks here or there, but nothing serious.

I had told Naea to sit tight for a day, but there was no way she would last that long. Knowing that, I never really planned to stay the full twenty four hours. I had hoped that the bars of the cage would allow for some more “equal” conversation, but no one had come to talk to me. I got the sense that they weren’t figuring out concessions so much as how to rid themselves of the “Grant problem.”

I began going a little stir crazy in the small cell. It had only been a few hours, but my patience was wearing thin to begin with. Composure wasn’t an issue of mine these days, easily able to tumble into my inner world and fiddle around there, losing hours at a time if I wanted. Normally. Every time I closed my eyes to sense my mana, the damn walls started screaming at me. From the lack of reaction in the guard at the end of the hall, it was a personalised annoyance.

Or he was very good at ignoring nails on a blackboard.

When it became clear that I was not going to get an interview or even, it seemed, a trial, I began experimenting. I was honestly stunned at the protections on the jail cell. If I had been paying more attention I probably would have avoided the cage rather than try this stupid idea. Despite my subdued connection to my magic, I could feel the Dragon’s raised eyebrow, as though to ask “This was your plan?”

Even the generally aloof Dao of Tempests gave me a nudge. Part of me was petulant when it came to the Dragon, but if the storm within was feeling shackled then I clearly had misstepped. Doubts in my own head were given simple answers by the magic within. If I wanted to leave, all I had to do was keep pushing against the boundary around me until it broke.

I wanted to claw at my own scalp in frustration. I felt torn between two versions of myself. On one side, I had the Grant which had been around since before the System. The Me which had interacted with other humans and mostly knew how to deal with them, or at least how to understand them. Then there was the Grant which had survived the dungeon at the beginning of the Shift and came out of it a warrior. Exhilaration, adventure and a life of seeking loftier and loftier heights were the hallmarks of that existence. That was where the Dao pushed me and where I felt most alive.

Abandoning my humanity was a slippery slope I had already fallen onto once with my handling of the murderer of Newtown. I barely thought of that moment, even now, but in a way that was half the problem. Killing another human hadn’t left a mark on my psyche, even if I focused on the memory of doing it. The man, Ewan, had been dangerous and Grant treated him no differently than he would a monster.

It felt to me that if I stormed into Londimin like the hurricane of force I could become, I would be no better than Steel Sovereign. Arguably, Steel hadn’t actually killed anyone, and there was no chance I had the same level of control. I reminded myself that this was exactly why I had let myself be jailed in the first place, and the frustration rose another level of magnitude.

I rode that feeling, angry at the way things had happened since I came to the city. I knew I wasn’t good at this, leadership or diplomacy, but Seth showed me that I had done better than I thought. He probably had his reasons for letting things get as bad as they were, but I didn’t care about them anymore. Ignoring the increasingly distracting siren noise which started as I cycled my mana, I began pressing against the cell’s enchantments.

Maybe if I cracked the city in two, they’d be more inclined to listen.

————————————————

Nolan took a calming breath before he began to descend the staircase to the cells under the station. The building was a sanctuary once, but now it felt like he was walking into a lion’s den. Nothing had made much sense since the System arrived, but today had been a doozy. He glanced at his right shoulder, where the whir of invisible wings told him Naea was hovering.

They had really made a big mistake here. Seth wouldn’t want to hear it, and the Constable And Scout leaders would no doubt be enraged but Nolan was starting to think he didn’t care. It wasn’t safe in Londimin, it was just more safe than anywhere else. At least, that was what Nolan had thought. With news of more settlements, he found himself very interested in talking to Grant once more.

His foot had landed on the first step as the world shook violently. Screams erupted all over and Nolan braced himself against the walls. The two guards, Larry and Morris, clashed heads as they ran straight into each other. Rashid nearly fell, but Nolan saw him freeze in mid-air and realised the fairy must have caught him. “What the hell is that?” Naea appeared from underneath Rashid as she helped him stand, her invisibility interrupted by the physical exertion, but with a smile on her face all the same.

“That,” Naea’s smug voice was proud, “would be Grant breaking out of your special prison cell.”