Perceived Fate

The sunlight coming over the horizon managed to break Malums thought process. His eyes darted to the gaps in the sealing where the light infiltrated.

It was hot, summer had come at full swing.

Getting up because he had no reason to stay down any longer, Malum put on his clothes and equipped his star. The creaky wood woke his comrades from their shallow slumber, and soon they joined him in early morning training.

Nobody else was awake, so just their grunts filled the practice ground. In reality it was just a dirt patch but that’s what people used it for.

As morning settled and the sun began to rise, sounds of others waking and moving towards the mess hall gave Malums Squad a reason to stop their training.

Inside the mess hall, Malum found the other Troop eating their fill with only a few member of their own eating at the rotting tables.

The nutrient paste was quickly eaten and the Troop Leaders soon entered. By that point, Malum had forced the paste down his throat and the members of his troop had dragged themselves in.

The joyful Troop Leader, his name being forgotten by Malum, began to speak.

“The first of many, today some of you shall face your first wave. You have all hunted a beast now you will be the prey. During waves the beasts are more aggressive and many can be found in the same place.

You will be grouped with another squad where they will teach you the ropes. As long as you remain calm and everyone works together your chances of survival are quite high. Now, before it reaches midday everyone must be in position. I wish you luck, Glory to the Isol Kingdom.”

After a repeat from the crowd, mostly the other troop, everyone parted ways and began to exit the mess hall. After exiting the squads paired up.

Malum decided to choose the group with what seemed to be the weakest people. In his eyes this outpost hadn’t received reinforcements for 2 months which meant they were stronger than they looked or that they knew something.

The skinny but tall man leading the Squad was called Tim and he had three squad members.

Agatha was short and skinny woman but interestingly she held a bow on her back.

Introducing himself as Roger, he was the strongest looking man in the group. He held a iron sword on his back and was solidly built. The only strange about him was that he wasn’t as tanned as everyone else. He looked to be of Noble blood, although he had clearly not seen the benefits of his heritage.

Finally, there was Trout. A man to fat to be on the frontlines but he was here anyway. He had a mace on his back and considering Malum would struggle to wield it, perhaps the fat hid the muscles.

They seemed cheerful at least, and accepted Malums group with hugs and handshakes.

“We are section C, so follow me. Occasionally you’ll see the direction etched on trees but for now just try to stay close. The fighting talk will wait till noon for now let’s talk about each other. As said before my birthname’s Tim and second is Gertrude.

I come from Willow Village and I have 6 siblings, that I know off. My dads a bit of a ladies man and he’s a merchant so he can afford it.”

Malum couldn’t help but speak up, “I’ve been to Willow village. Couldn’t have been 4 years ago I reckon.”

Tim looked at him in a new light and said, “We must have met, Malum right...”

He seemed to think before his eyes lit up, “I know you! The strange travellers son, damn you’ve really grown kid.”

As Malum and Tim caught up the others talked amongst themselves as they formed a for combined troop than two separate groups. They mixed surprisingly well, with Alicia getting on really well with Agatha and Gerald getting on really well with Trout.

By the time they crossed the line the nerves of everyone in the group had calmed consideringly, but the sight of the demonic wasteland brought them all back.

“This is your new home. For the next 30 ish hours you’ll see demonic beast, soil and the sun. If any of you believe strongly in any God praying now is customary.

None of Malums group were that religious but it didn’t do any harm. So many choose between the God of Luck, the God of Hunting and Tim said one for the God of Nature.

Willow Village was a farming community, one thar heavily relied on the yield of their crops such the village was dominated by the belief of Nature. They even had a priest if Malum remembered. It was a Good God so nobody found a problem with it.

After they had said their words of hope, the combined troop walked deeper into the Wasteland where they found a few huts surrounded by torches.

Fire scarred off a few demonic beats, but the shacks had clearly seen their fair share of warfare.

“This everyone is our Beacon. These are what we will defend and the torches are mainly to attract wave beasts and also to keep our vision during the night. Now take a good look around as this is where you will be defending very soon. Especially the terrain, getting lost during the wave is death sentence so study even the soil around you.”

Malum could see no reason not to, the advice was sound so he got to work. There were twelve torches equally separated in a circle around the small shack. The dirt was fairly flat but clear evidence of previous battles had left many scares in the dirt that could act like markers.

He also looked into the distance. Where hills looked from certain areas would give a good idea in which direction he would be facing. If he were to get lost, at least he would like to know which direction was deeper into demon territory and which one led to human civilisation.

There were a few hills in demonic desert around them and their shapes allowed for Malum to get a better idea of which way was home. He could study the stars, but it wasn’t always nighttime and he wasn’t the best at star navigation.

Trout, Agatha, Tim and Roger where all spending this time to reinforce the shacks. Inside their backs they had brought with them wood, a rusty saw, and some strong binds weed. With them, they repaired the shacks and built what looked like a fence.

Malum had to admit they were good builders, Trout especially seemed adept at building and Malum guessed he did it before he was sent here.

Malum had not stopped his investigation as to why this squad seemed to survive and with this he had found his first lead.

After the dirt had been analysed, the group reformed and Tim set the next task as massive feast. Eating during the wave was dangerous as demons were attracted to food more than they were to fire so they rushed through the torches and tended stamp them out as they came.

This led to many complete annihilations of squads and so rules were set on eating. It was a bit like a fast that many churches did, one big meal before the wave and one right after as well.

Malum’s group prepared a fire as Tim’s squad went to hunt the food. Demonic beasts could be eaten but rarely were as it was seen as bad luck. They had done it before on their hunting trip and they were doing it here because bad luck wasn’t enough to stop them doing it.

“What is it going to do, kill us?” Trout said as he laughed. Gerald joined him and most smiled at the joke. It helped relieve some of the pressure, it would only be an hour or two before midday came.

With the demonic corpse now here Malum studied the wounds for his investigation as it cooked. As Trout and Gerald continued to banter, Malum found slices down it neck that were clean and precise.

It was variant – 001 otherwise known as the Ankylosaurus roughly meaning armoured lizard. Considering the hard shell on the lizards back, this was an aptly named creature. It held a club on the back of its tail, and held several horns on its protruding face.

It had good defence and decent offense with lacking speed and mobility.

One wound meant one strike. Malum took another look at Tim. He was stronger than he could have guessed.

With only one wound that meant Malum had nothing to infer so he listened into the banter to relieve his stress. As the sun rose to a peak, the banter wasn’t enough for Malums heart beat to rise with it.

The sun rose to its peak.

At first, nothing changed. The precise moment it became midday was lost to everyone so the little moment where the unfathomable power activated was unknown.

Instead it was the effects that they witnessed.

Immediately, a variant crested the nearest mound and charged towards the fire. Variant – 11, a Carnotaurus was a large beats with great hight and great speed. With its strong tail and speed, it was a threat to any mortal human.

Malum and his troop watched as Tim and his squad moved out to face the Beast.

Agatha took a small vantage position and fired a few arrows at the beasts legs. Although it didn’t stop the beast it slowed the beast down to where Tim could meet the beast in open combat.

Power was weight and speed this was something Malum already knew and used methodically to strategies. What he saw next gave him another idea towards the concept of power.

As the Tim met the charging beast, he dodged the heads horns easily and went for the legs. He heavily damaged one of the two legs of the beast which would severely limit any movement from that moment fourth.

Incapacitated the beast was as good as dead and with a clean slice of the blade the shining red eyes grew darker and darker untill they faded to black.

He didn’t use his own speed. Tim didn’t swing his sword that fast, and yet the leg had come cleanly off. The enemies movement had worked against it when the blade met the leg.

It ran into the knife and its speed met the blade but how did the blade best the leg. The leg no doubt would have weighed more, and it clearly was going faster so Malum struggled to see how it made sense.

He took his sword out of its sheath and gently hit it against a nearby rock. As expected, the blade failed to penetrate the rock and instead the blade recoiled back.

Malum pondered upon his sword and shield training. He thought back to the words of his instructor and to those of his martial book. Even as far as his Uncles many words did he think back to.

Iron was stronger than that demons leg. However it was also stronger than the rock he had just hit. Material wasn’t the answer but Malum couldn’t think of what it was.

After a few more ideas that turned to disappointment, Malum shelved the idea and focused back on the wave. Survival was priority number one so he looked back to see what he could copy from Tim’s squad.

Tim was fast, almost inhumanly so. If Malum hadn’t seen his Uncle do some sprinting, he would have been the fastest person he had ever seen run.

His reflexes as well, were trained to a degree which made Malums look slow.

Roger was strong and acted as good support whenever more than one demon arrived. If Tim was the butcher, Agatha was the doorman, Roger was the assistant and Trout was the delivery man.

Whenever a demon strayed from it path, ignoring Agatha’s assault, Trout would reel it back towards the Butchers hand. The system they created put a lot of pressure of Tim to make quick concise kills and Tim certainly did not disappoint.

6 hours later, and a small mountain of corpses lined the back of the Outpost. Agatha had to recollect her arrows and it was good not to clutter the battlefield so a neat pile of demon now acted as Malums Squad view point.

Malum had learned more than he could have imagined. Learning about weakness’ and seeing them exploited first hand was enlightening towards Malums warrior prowess. He now felt confident in taking a few more beasts on and he would soon get the chance.

Midday had turned into evening and that signalled to Malum that his group was up next. They had already adapted their plan to try out the Tim method of killing beasts.

Malum was obviously the butcher although he was joined by Gerald and Jerome. Alicia and Jake were going to be the delivery men. If it didn’t work they would change it, but giving it a go especially under the guidance of Tim and his squad was the best idea everyone could think off.

Walking out into the field, Malum sat down and waited. Resting during idle periods was something Tim stressed, he would be here for 6 hours he would need to rest while he could.

It didn’t take long before Alice and Jake had brought their first prey. A version of Variant – 001 that looked small and clearly ha less defence but also looked incredibly fast. Alicia and Jake were fighting the beast off as the ran towards them and an issue arose as they weren’t faster than the beast.

With the human size demon going to scratch her legs, Alicia had to roll to doge the beasts incoming attack. She quickly went back on her feet but the demon recovered faster, it dived again and before Alicia was about to sustain an injury Jake slashed the Variant with his sword.

Somehow the beast dodged mid-air by moving its body but the time it gave allowed for Alicia to dodge the Demon. Malum sent Jerome to help them as he realised that the demonic beast would be a pain to deliver so he sent a butcher there instead.

It didn’t take long once he arrived for Jerome to find an opportunity to cut one the beats legs. With it slowed, the beast soon died to Jerome’s sword.

Malum thought about how he could adapt his team to avoid future problems but couldn’t think of anything; that Variant was simply too quick and the only way that could be solved was for Alicia and Jake to be faster.

More variants came and soon they were facing up to 4 at the same time. Many dangers were narrowly avoided with death being a real possibility many times.

Blood was spilt, tactics were changed, and tribulations were overcome.

With the help of Tim only twice, they managed to survive the first six hours.