"come on Alice, hurry up, the captain said it"s important!"inside the army barracks located inside the inner wall of the fort city Black Hollow, a youth was bangning loudly on a door in the officers section. The youth wore a worn brown leather vest over a white and blue robe that reached all the way to his knees, and on his feet was a pair of solid looking brown leather boots. In the hand he didn"t use to knock on the door, he held a tall staff made of some kind of white metal with a expensive looking large blue gem on the tip, encased in gla.s.s. his green eyes had a naive and slightly nervous look, and with his short curly hair and his pet.i.te facial features he looked more like a child than a soldier.
"Alice are you even there?"
"i"m getting dressed, wait a f.u.c.king second!"
the youth immediately stopped knocking as he flinched when he heard Alice"s angry roar from the other side of the door.
about 5 minutes later, a young looking woman emerged from the door, appearing as annoyed as she were sleepy, she wore a robust looking light leather armor with a wooden shortbow on her back and a short one handed double-edged sword strapped to her waist. Her long chestnut hair was set up in a slightly messy french braid that reached all the way to her hips. her blue eyes and freckled face gave her a wild look and that look were amplified by her ferocious facial expression.
"so? why the h.e.l.l did you wake me Viktor?! you know i just got back from a 2 week patrol yesterday right?"
as a wolf staring down its prey, Alice seeked a explanation for her disturbed sleep.
"i d-don"t know, the captain said to get the best ranger and report back for briefing as fast as possible"
"huuh? why!?"
"i don"t know, just come along please, i"ll give you half my pay this week"
"aaargh okay let"s go, come on, MOVE!"
dragging along Viktor by the scruff of his neck, Alice walked out the barracks to the nearby officers building
"jeez i thought this was my week off, what the h.e.l.l does that old pig want with me?"
"Alice! you"re not supposed to talk that way about a superior officer"
"huh!? are you gonna rat on me?"
"hiii! o-of course not"
while attracting a lot of attention and wry smiles the pair finally made it to captain Russell"s office, the leader of the Black Hollow rangers. Russell"s office was full of old wooden shelves jam packed with recon reports written on parchment paper and leather bound books of warring color containing information on everything from the use of large scale battle formations to info on nearby monsters. in the middle of the office was a large fancy looking table surrounded by two black leather sofas and behind was a worn desk with parchment paper all over. behind the desk sat captain Russell, he wore a red silk uniform that was slightly too tight around the belly. he was about 40 years of age and what was left of his blond hair was in the process of turning gray and his face had numerous wrinkles but his blue eyes still had a sharp look and he gave the overall impression of a veteran fighter.
Alice didn"t even knock before entering, and she immediately sat down in one of the sofas and starred annoyingly at Russell
"so, what do you need captain? i a.s.sume there"s a good reason for calling me in doing my off day?"
"Alice, for the 100th time. please don"t put your dirty boots on the table, it"s expensive!"
"then don"t call me in on my holiday all the time old man"
as Alice starred at Russell with a smug face, Russell looked like he was about to blow a fuse, that is until he remembered that there was more important things to do than get mad at Alice for the 1000th time
"Alice, did you see the starfall about a day ago?"
"did you call me just to talk about your crazy theories again? for the last time! starfalls are completely normal, it"s not some demon invasion!"
"no this time it might actually be something, a farmer found this yesterday"
Russell got up from his chair and handed Alice a shard of what looked to be some kind of black metal, apporxadly 40 centimeters long and only a few millimeters thick. Alice quickly got up from the sofa and started to examine the shard with great interest.
"what the f.u.c.k is this, why is it so light? did you try to smelt it or break a piece of it off? also what the s.h.i.+t is up with this surface, it"s sooo smooth!?"
eagerly rubbing her face against the shard of metal while firing of as many questions she could think of, Alice seemed to completely forget that she had been deprived of her precious
holidays when presented with something so unknown. looking at Alice with a gentle smile, like a grandparent after giving his granddaughter a present, Russell started to explain.
"we have no idea what it is yet, what we do know is that there"s no way to scratch it, not even hitting it with a sword or dropping it from the castle tower semmes to do anything, other than cracking the stone pavement or denting the sword of course"
"but what about heat? or mana?"
"we tried to melt by heating it in the local blast furnace for about 4 hours, but that did nothing, h.e.l.l like it was just mooking us it didn"t even seem to heat up, and the crazy old master smith Alex just picked it right out of the furnace with his bare hands. as for mana it was the same story, even when Viktor tried pouring half of his manapool in it there was no reaction, other than everyone in the surrounding getting sick from the excess mana in the air of course"
Alice finally stopped examining the shard and looked skeptically at Russell
"are you saying this thing is impossible to melt?"
"yeah i saw it myself, it was a pain to pry it from Alex after, i had to promise him a sample before he was willing to let go of it again"
"i get that this is a amazing found captain but why show it to me? i"m just a lowly ranger, did you report this to the capital?"
"i was about to this morning when a dragon rider arrived with a royal decree, it contained 2 parts, the first one was to close all external borders and place all foreign diplomats under house arrest until further notice, and the second was to collect any and all fragments from the latest skyfall and wait for the royal guard to come collect them. luckily there are no foreign diplomats in this city i can p.i.s.s off, but the second part worried me so i asked around, apparently "something" huge landed intact near the capital and they want to restrict information until they know what it is"
Alice took a moment to think before responding in a completely serious tone
"you think this could tip the power balance we have with our neighbours?"
"i don"t know, but the king thinks so, otherwise he wouldn"t p.i.s.s off all our allies by arresting their diplomats"
"do you have a specific job for me captain, or should i just searching the forest?"
"no i can let the army do that, i want you and Viktor to head south to the bordering mountain range"
"wait what, why do i have to bring Viktor?"
"yeah captain Russell why do i have to go to the mountain range, i"m not a ranger!?"
Viktor that had so far only observed the conversation panicked when he heard he had to enter the dangerous forest.
"it"s already been decided, i talked with the General earlier, he received reports from the wall patrols on the night of starfall that something huge landed to the south near the mountain range. he told me to send my best men to tjek it out, Alice you"re by far the best ranger around, if you didn"t have that mouth, you would have been transferred from this back end post a long time ago. and Viktor even though you"re a new recruit you"re by far one of the most talented mages around, i want the to of you for this job get out there fast and find out if there"s anything of value, then report back. simple right?"
"arrgh i get it, come on lets go Viktor we need to pick up supplies. hey captan i can take the good stuff since this is a important mission right?"
"sure just hurry back"
"wait! i did not agree on this, don"t drag me Alice i can walk on my own!"
fruitlessly protesting Alice while being dragged along, Viktor now had a even more panicked expression than when we woke her up.
after picking up some high cla.s.s travel supplies and field rations normally meant for n.o.bels, Alice and Viktor exited the inner wall of Black Hollow and moved through the residential district and out the southern gate of the outer wall. after half a days travel, about midday they reached the forest edge.
"hey Alice, isn"t it time to set up camp before we enter the forest?"
"no we"re not gonna camp today, we"ll go straight there and back as fast as possible, so we"re gonna walk all night before camping for a few hours tomorrow, i have never seen the captain so serious so we need to find out what the h.e.l.l fell there as fast as possible and return"
"but i"m not a ranger Alice, there"s no way i can walk for that long!"
strongly protesting the spartan sounding plan Alice came up with Viktor stopped and was about to walk home when Alice graped his hand and pulled a gla.s.s vial with a black liquid out of her backpack
"i know that Viktor, that"s why i asked that sly old man if i could take some of the expensive supplies, here drink up"
"wait what is th!!!"
Viktor didn"t even get to ask about the suspicious looking vail before Alice jammed it down his throat.
"oh this? it"s some extremely expensive elixir i don"t know what it"s called or how it works but i once heard about a fellow ranger that drank this, it"s gonna keep you awake all night so you might as well follow me right?"
while forcing Viktor to drink the whole vial Alice explained her master plan.
"okay okay i got it but if i fall unconscious from this you need to carry me home and if i die i"m gonna haunt you for the rest of your life you hear! ahh i feel sick"
continuing into the forest and moving all night with Alice leading the way, Viktor didn"t even feel slightly tired even when noon came next day, that is until he did finally lay down to sleep in the afternoon to nap a couple hours under Alice"s instruction, and proceeded to sleep like a log until Alice woke him up later for a guard s.h.i.+ft.
"we should be getting close now, Viktor can you use detection magic to try and find something?"
"yeah just give me a second…"
Viktor stopped up and found place to sit down, after sitting down he closed his eyes and started chant in a language that was unknown to Alice. after about 30 seconds Viktor opened his eyes again, but something had changed, his eyes was covered in a faintly glowing blue film and he quickly looked around the dimming forest, seemingly able to look straight through
the surrounding vegetation.
"ah i found something, there"s a unnaturally huge clearing that way"
"okay let"s move, stay behind me and don"t make a sound"
taking out her bow and nocking an arrow, Alice now started to move slowly through the dense forest with Viktor following about 2 meters behind.
after moving about a hundred meters Alice suddenly stopped before hiding behind a tree signaling Viktor to do the same
"what happ-"
"quiet we"ve been spotted"
quickly covering Viktors mouth and explaining what was going on, Alice now had a frightened look on her face and Viktor who had never seen her act like that immediately knew it was serious. Alice silently took of her backpack with their supplies and gave it to Viktor before signaling him to escape immediately.
he never got to do that however, with a loud bang something landed about 10 meters in front of them, knocking up small a dust cloud.
"WHAT THE f.u.c.k IS THAT!"
"WE CAN"T RUN FROM THAT VIKTOR PREPARE FOR COMBAT!!"
standing over 2 meters tall a strange humanoid in some kind of black bodysuit with a mask that seemed like it absorbed the surrounding light covering its face, Alice felt herself being a.n.a.lysed, like a viper staring down its prey, and her sixth sense told her that whatever it was, it wasnt gonna let them leave.
"IT LOOKS LIKE A DEMON, AND A HIGH CLa.s.s ONE AT THAT! VIKTOR PREPARE FOR A FIGHT TO THE DEATH, YOU DON"T WANNA BE TAKEN ALIVE BY THAT ONE!!!"