(This chapter is told through the perspective of Private Nathan Pierre, Ostroven Army.)---
They had me stationed at Fort Dunkel, the largest armory in Ostroven. We had a ma.s.sive stockpile and sent any surplus to the armies throughout the country. It was on the main road, so we were pretty busy. It was easy and not too different from working in a warehouse.
CPT. Hisakawa: "Private, did you ready the weapons for shipment?"
PVT. Pierre: "Aye, sir."
That was Captain Hisakawa, reliable and headstrong Nekomata. He"s in charge of the fort and keeps everyone on their toes. If something were to happen, he would know about it. In fact, he would know everything, and at the same time, no one knew anything about him.
CPT. Hisakawa: "Head to the mess hall after you"re done, I don"t want you messing up my schedule by collapsing."
PVT. Pierre: "Aye, sir."
I mostly kept to myself in one of the warehouses with a couple other men. It was me, Jackson, and Layne. I hated them at first, but now they"re pretty much my best friends.
PVT. Jackson: "Did you hear the Captain? We can go eat now."
Jackson and I were both from the countryside. Though, he had a penchant for getting yelled at by the Captain. There really isn"t much to him, other than he"s a crack shot with the bow.
CPL. Layne: "Finish up first, you want to p.i.s.s the Captain off again?"
Layne was from the capital, Everhand. He"s been here longer than any of us. His sister was a teacher at some academy. He claimed he could"ve gone on the Officer Track but wanted to actually fight in the army. Though, he"s now moving crates full of weapons around and not actually fighting. I wonder how it"s working out for him.
PVT. Pierre: "Everything"s already finished."
CPL. Layne: "Then let"s get something to eat."
PVT. Pierre: "Go on, I have to use the latrine."
They"re really eager to eat and rushed off. After doing my business, I start making my way to the mess hall. These warehouses really do get quiet when it"s time to eat.
Girl: "Excuse me!"
A civilian in the warehouses? A real beauty at that one too. Her ears are rounded, it could be a birth defect. Oh well, she might be lost, we do get the usual traveler pa.s.sing by. h.e.l.l, I don"t what to say about this one. If the Captain saw this, he"d flip.
PVT. Pierre: "Are you lost? Civilians are not allowed in the warehouses."
Girl: "Yes, I"m looking for the strongest swords your little fort carries! I kind of had mine stolen."
Alright, she"s a little off, I"m impressed she even made it this far in the fort. The M.P."s will know what to do. I"ll take her there, better them than me.
PVT. Pierre: "We can go to the offices, they would know what to do."
Girl: "Alright!"
PVT. Pierre: "No running!"
Oh man, Captain"s really going to give me an earful. It"s the best I can do anyways. I wonder what she"s doing here, did she really lose a sword here?
PVT. Pierre: "Hey kid, what"s your name?"
Lilith: "My name"s Lilith, what"s yours?"
PVT. Pierre: "Nathan Pierre, it"s nice to meet you."
She reminds me of a girl I was sweet on. I"m starting to reminisce here. Really good memories, those days were.
PVT. Pierre: "How"d you lose your sword, Lilith?"
Lilith: "Some boy stole it, along with my book."
I hate bullies, why would they do something to someone like her? She looks like a real sweetheart. She must be from a bad town to be getting pushed around like that.
PVT. Pierre: "Where did it happen?"
Lilith: "Everhand, I just moved there too."
The capital, I guess it"s not the city of diplomacy and knowledge it"s all cracked up to be.
PVT. Pierre: "Why didn"t you go to a Weaponsmith to replace it? Why come all the way out here?"
It doesn"t make sense one bit. Then again, none of this did make any sense. Swords aren"t exactly outlawed, so you were able to get them just about anywhere.
Lilith: "My sword was enchanted. I need something strong to get it back."
PVT. Pierre: "You"re going to fight to get it back?"
Lilith: "Yeah, I know how to use a sword."
That"s pretty risky, if you"re going to get your sword back, you"d be better off calling the guard to help. If it"s either her courage or just stupidity, it"s debatable. I have to give her credit for trying, at least.
PVT. Pierre: "That"s really brave of you, but shouldn"t you leave it to the guard? What if you get hurt?"
Lilith: "You"re worried about someone like me? Thanks!"
She turned around and starts hugging me. Now, this is heaven, she even smells like it too! It"s fine if I stroke her hair, just a little bit. That way, I can just say I tried to push her away, but didn"t want to touch her. It seemed like a good excuse, until the Captain started yelling.
CPT. Hisakawa: "You f.u.c.king moron! Get away from her!"
Like all good things, it comes crashing to a halt. Captain tried to warn me, but before I was able to do anything, she pulled a dagger and sticks me in the chest, running off in the opposite direction. The Captain became enraged and chased after her. Leaving me alone, bleeding out. This pain is on a whole new level, not even training was this painful.
PVT. Pierre: "Help… I need help!"
She got me good, I"m bleeding everywhere. I can barely call out for help because of the pain and end up leaving a trail of blood as I crawled across the floor.
2LT. Davis: "Captain, I heard you yelling... My G.o.d, Pierre! Hang in there! I got you, I know a healing spell!
PVT. Pierre: "Cap– Captain chased h-her down the hhallway."
The Lieutenant"s magic helped, but I lost quite a bit of blood. My fingers feel cold and I feel energetic. It could be that Davis transferred a bit of his energy to me.
CPL. Layne: "What the f.u.c.k happened here?!"
2LT. Davis: "Corporal, I want you and Pierre to arm up, someone"s attacking the fort!"
CPL. Layne: "Yes, sir. Let"s go, on your feet, Pierre."
The building shook violently as the hallway where the Captain went collapsed, causing a fire to break out. What the h.e.l.l is going on? The building kept shaking as we attempted our escape from the warehouse. Everyone was in disarray, running everywhere across the fort. Some of the buildings were in flames, no way this was the work of one person, we really are under attack!
2LT Davis: "I have to find the Captain!"
CPL. Layne: Let"s go Nathan, it"s you and me!"
We ran for the barracks and grabbed our swords, everyone else seemed to do the same. Jackson was ready and waiting for us with his bow. Staff Sergeant Stark was yelling out orders to everyone in the commotion.
SSGT. Stark: "Adams, gather the wounded outside the fort! Abbot, Layne, get your teams and move to a.s.sist the Captain!"
CPL. Abbot: "Aye, sir!"
There were now 6 of us and we moved towards the Captain on the other side of the fort. So many soldiers lay dead or wounded and that girl was the cause of it. Her hands were shrouded in darkness as she traded blows with the Captain. I was right there when I finally realized that she was a demon. How could I be so stupid and not realize it at first?
CPL. Layne: "Abbot, Jackson, I need you two to get on the wall and cover us as we move in."
CPL. Abbot: "Roger, let"s go Jackson!"
I looked around and saw Davis hunched over, covering a wound on his abdomen. It looked nasty and I ran over to him to help.
PVT. Pierre: "Lieutenant!"
2LT Davis: "S-she"s f.u.c.king crazy… S-s-she took all of us on and… you have to go… now!"
PVT. Pierre: "Lieutenant, stay with me!"
CPL. Layne: "He"s gone, we still have that girl to worry about!"
It wasn"t easy, he died in my arms. He was a good man, he had a wife and kids, but now he was taken away by that demon. She"s going to pay!
CPL. Layne: "Andrews, Joshua, you stay right here and hit her with all the magic you got."
PVT. Andrews: "Yes, sir."
CPL. Layne: "Pierre, we"re going to come up on her while she"s distracted by them and get in from behind."
PVT. Pierre: "Aye, sir."
While they attacked from the distance, Captain backed up little by little when he figured out what we were planning. He was exhausted and almost ready to collapse. We moved cover to cover until we were right behind Lilith. It was up to our support to keep her distracted while we closed in.
Lilith: "I just needed your best sword! Now, you"re all going to die!"
CPL. Layne: "Now!"
We closed in on her before she was able to react. We both got a good hit on her. We got her! Support kept firing at her until Layne gave the order to stop.
CPL. Layne: "Hold! I think we got her!"
When the dust cleared, we saw her standing motionless. The Captain was about to rush in when it happened. Out of nowhere, a large explosion knocked everyone back. She used explosion magic on top of herself. The last thing I remember right afterwards was me flying into a wall, knocking me unconscious.
PVT. Andrews: "Joshua! You"re good, hang in there!"
When I had woken up, I thought I finally died and gone to h.e.l.l. Smoke covered the skies as fire engulfed the entire fort.
CPL. Layne: "Pierre! Thank G.o.d you"re alright!"
PVT. Pierre: "What the h.e.l.l just happened?"
PVT. Jackson: "She blew herself up, crazy b.i.t.c.h!"
CPL. Layne: "She"s not dead, I don"t see any trace of her anywhere. Andrews, how"s Joshua?"
PVT. Andrews: "He"s good, his leg is busted. We have to carry him out of here!
CPL Layne: "Do that, we"re getting out of here!"
We did a quick for Abbot and Hisakawa but couldn"t find them. We could only hope that they got away. We carried Joshua and made our way out of the fort. Where did everyone go? There were only 15 or so soldiers that met us outside. The others might"ve called for help, a marching army could be seen heading towards us from the north, reinforcements.
CPL. Layne: "Where"s the Captain?"
PVT. Monroe: "I haven"t seen him since the explosion. What was that anyway? Are the demons finally attacking?"
CPL. Layne: "G.o.d, I hope not."
When the reinforcements arrived, we were able to treat the wounded properly. Some of the soldiers that knew water magic were able to stop the fire and we immediately began searching for more survivors. It was horrible, some of the soldiers looked like that had just stopped breathing and the others were beyond recognition.
PVT. Monroe: "Give me a hand! I think I found someone!"
We found Abbot, he didn"t make it. I didn"t know him well enough, but we were on good terms. This keeps getting worse by the second. We kept searching near the crater of the explosion and finally found the Captain, barely alive.
PVT. Pierre: "Captain! Get a medic!"
CPT. Hisakawa: "Done… in… by a f.u.c.king kid."
Medic: "Here, I got him!"
He quickly rushed towards the Captain and began using his healing magic. It didn"t seem like he was getting any better and the medic told me to give him some room to work.
CPL. Layne: "Pierre, let"s go, they just set up a triage outside."
We left the Captain to the medic, he"s strong, I"m sure he"ll make it. We went to the triage center where we got checked for injuries. Though, I was fine except for the blood loss and a mild concussion. They told me I lost a quarter of my blood and began to treat me. It took a while and I could overhear some of the others talking.
Nurse: "How many people did they lose?"
Sargeant: "They"re death toll already hit 50, and we keep finding more people in debris."
Nurse: "My G.o.d, what about the Captain?"
Sargeant: "Both lieutenants were killed. The Captain survived the attack, but pa.s.sed shortly after. First Sergeant Lloyd is going to pick up in the meantime."
Nurse: "Who could even do such a thing?"
It was a demon, who else would do this? I even fell for her charm and couldn"t stop it. They"re all dead, the Captain, Abbot, Davis. It was right there when I swore that I would make that girl pay, even if it would cost me, and the first place I would go to, is the capital, Everhand.