I woke to the noise of the soldiers heading back to the APCs. Bleary eyed, I followed them to the vehicles, meeting up with my group along the way. We loaded up into one of the APCs and were soon back on the road, though I noted before we left that quite a few soldiers were left behind. I wasn’t sure if they intended to help rebuild the town, defend from any possible attacks, be it from beasts or men, or if they were simply there to give the townspeople peace of mind.

The silence within the APC weighed heavily upon me, and eventually I took out one of the three books I carried with me to read. I wanted to keep more, but the weight quickly became prohibitive, throwing off my balance in combat. I had already read through the story a few times, but each time I did I understood it a bit better, picking up a few new words. I repeatedly thanked any god or gods that existed that the Kyren used a phonetic alphabet rather than a single symbol for each word like a few languages from Earth.

The story was a pretty cheesy one, telling a story of a mighty warrior, who went on adventures, saved damsels in distress, and killed mythical beasts. It was pretty standard fantasy fare. Or it would be if it was fiction. From what I could tell, it was an autobiography of some powerful warrior from another world, rather than being a tale of fantasy. It was an enjoyable read though, and became more so the more I read. It even talked in depth about the different monsters, along with illustrations. Apparently there were whale sized land beasts I translated as leviathans, which would be hunted for days. The hunters slowly bled the monster out until it died. Wyverns were considered basically a footnote in the book, only coming to prominence when the warrior in the story raided a den of them to steal an egg. There were other interesting monsters, a giant feathered snake that lived in the ocean, something described as many legged and armored, the illustration of it making me think very uncomfortably of a giant centipede, and even actual dragons, which are apparently very docile.

I let myself get lost in the story for the rest of the day, and nearly finished it by the time we arrived at the campground, the magically lit interior of the APC we were riding in providing plenty of light even as the sun began to set. Getting out of the vehicle, I stretched out for a good fifteen minutes, feeling the stiffness in my body slowly fade away as I walked in circles. Someone came by from the supply group, bringing along food and water, and I munched down on the unappetizing road food as I thought of what was to come.

The first battle had been painful in a way I hadn’t expected. Fighting with sword and shield was terrifying in a way that sitting back and using my gun wasn’t, but on the other hand, I couldn’t just sit back with my gun with the forcefield and my allies getting in the way. My best bet would probably be doing what I had done at the end of the other day, using my revolver as close support, though it wasn’t exactly nice to the ears of nearby people. The crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier was still loud, though not as bad as traditional gunpowder guns.

I finished off the unenjoyable meal, and set up my tent next to my group. I wasn’t sure where the army was going for now, but I would stick with them if it gave us a chance to rescue my friend. As I set up, I noticed Lilya, staring into the flames again, and decided that the least I could do would be sit beside her for now. Anything I said would come out empty, seeing as how I didn’t think it particularly likely that we would even find Dmiyo, let alone rescue him. I thought that I may be thinking a bit too pessimistically, but it’s hard to break a lifetime of habit.

We sat there in silence a while, but eventually, I started to nod off and crawled into my tent to sleep. Morning came with the usual discomfort from having slept on the ground, but it soon faded as I got packed up and entered the APC with a sigh. I was not looking forward to the constant sitting, only breaks for mealtimes. The next few days passed in the same pattern. I read one of my books or talked with the group to learn at least a little more of the language.

Eventually, we came upon another scar in the earth, this one seeming more entrenched than the previous one had been. It seemed to be a path that had been worn down from repeated passage. I nervously examined it while we ate our lunch beside it.

I watched the two important people talk again during lunch, and after they’d reached an agreement, lunch ended. We started to follow the path of ripped up earth, chasing after the mobile city. The trip soon faded into monotony, when one day we stopped short. We hadn’t yet reached the mobile city, but we exited our vehicles anyway. The very important looking man with a gold trimmed cuirass and a blue and gold gambeson exited his vehicle.

The man seemed to have trouble climbing up upon one of the APCs, then took a deep breath and began a speech I was only going to understand about half of. He droned on and on about something, sometimes mentioning the Tesser, other times mentioning something about fighting, and even mentioned the hunters to some nods of appreciation. I just sort of sat there as his speech rose to a crescendo and ended with the soldiers cheering. Looking around, I noticed that only a few of the hunters joined in, so i held back on joining the cheers.

We all filed back into our mobile armored carriages, and were soon being bounced around inside as we chased after the mobile city. I caught something out of the corner of my eye appearing in the small window only an hour later. The mobile city I could see slowly grew in my view, and soon the fireballs were flying towards the APCs. The mobile city didn’t even slow down, slowly grinding along.

I held my breath as fireballs started to fall around us, then let it out as the first force cannon fired at the frankenstein of a vehicle, some of the wooden buildings on it exploding in a shower of splinters. The fireballs stopped as the forcefield went up,and the mobile city still kept trying to run away. It was far slower than the APCs we were riding in, and slower even than the force cannons which were barraging the forcefield.

We continued the chase, a pack of wolves chasing an elephant, when the forcefield shattered in a show of light. I grinned as the force cannons started to impact the city itself, this time targeting the treads beneath it in order to cripple the giant misshapen beast. The treads shattering beneath it, the mobile city started to tilt to the side, stopping its forward motion. Harpoons then began to lance into the city as our soldiers disembarked the APCs, and then started climbing the ropes connected to those harpoons into the city. I joined the soldiers in exiting the APCs, and looked at the city, which was showing much more action than the previous one we had attacked.

It looked as if we’d knocked over an ant hill, Tesser soldiers constantly sending spells through murder holes in the city. The fireballs, lightning bolts, and more obscure spells were returned in full by our force cannons Each shot from one of them splattered the Tesser soldiers like a stepped on juice box. I took up my rifle, firing at any of the Tesser soldiers trying to cut down the ropes our soldiers were climbing. My shots continued, as did the force cannons, and splatters of blood were constantly sprayed across the amalgamation of buildings.

From the mobile city, a ramp soon popped down, and soldiers began to spew out at us, spraying fire from their wands. A good few of our soldiers and hunters were torched before they could react, but our group soon got it together and got in melee with them, preventing the ignition of more of the Kyren soldiers. I sat back with my rifle, shooting at any soldiers who were still trying to cut down the ropes, but had to stop when our soldiers reached the top of them and started to invade the mobile city. I was confused when a firework went flying up from the city, getting a bad feeling as it exploded into a shower of sparks in the sky.

I switched from my rifle to my revolver, and started doing my best to back up my group. This time, as I fired whenever I saw a clear opening, I noticed the Tesser soldiers emulating me, using their fire wands whenever they had a clear line of sight. Wondering at the difference in tactics between the different Tesser groups, I did my best to avoid any of the flames turning me into a pyre. The fight continued. Whenever a person in front of me would move heavily to the side in order to avoid a stream of flame, or dodging a sword blow, I would take the opening to shoot anything I could see. While a good portion of the time the Tesser soldiers had shields in the way, occasionally I painted the Tesser soldiers in the back row with blood or brain matter.

My fingers eventually became sore from constantly loading my revolver, and my mind was happy for the distraction that my sore fingers provided. I latched onto it, being very thankful that my magic weaponry didn’t generate any heat, as having my fingers both burned and sore would be miserable. The soreness couldn’t distract me from the constant death for long though. In one direction, there was a Tesser soldier, a grimace on his face as he plunged his sword into a hunter. In the other, I watched a hunter wielding a massive greatsword cleave multiple Tesser soldiers in twain with a single blow, laughing as he did so.

There I sat in the middle, a dealer of death myself, the revolver in my hand seeming to weigh a bit heavier in my hand each time I fired it. I kept repeating a mantra in my mind, the Tesser are slavers. The Tesser are rapists. The Tesser took Dmiyo from us. I did everything I could. I tried to convince myself that they deserved the death I was granting them. I didn’t want to think they had a family, I didn’t want to think they had lovers, children, parents. I eventually simply didn’t want to think.

I felt myself slow down through the battle, the constant mental strain causing me to be a bit too slow when a Tesser soldier slipped through the battle line, stabbing into my chest. I tried to raise my shield, but was too late, and started to think that I was getting my just rewards for the death I’d brought. I blinked in surprise as the sword simply glanced off my wyvern scale cuirass, only cutting a light slice in my shoulder. I’d completely forgotten about my armor, and from the soldier’s expression, they hadn’t expected it to stop their sword. My surprise didn’t stop me from raising my revolver and putting multiple bullets into the young soldier’s body as he tried to pull his sword back.

The soldier slumped down onto my body, and I took a step back, letting the body fall, only to note that I’d stepped on yet another body, one of the Kyren soldiers. I felt numb, the new streak of blood down my armor making me visually match my feelings. I continued to numbly reload my revolver, then went back to shooting when I could. For some reason I felt even less alert than before the soldier slipped through. Luckily or unluckily, no one new made it through the front line of fighters, and eventually the soldiers stopped, then let out a cry. We had won.

The soldiers had begun to celebrate, with me in their midst feeling like an outcast for not celebrating the death of hundreds, when I spotted something in the distance. It quickly approached. At first, all I could make out were clouds of dust, but soon they turned into a large number of core powered wagons. They weren’t armored like the ones we had been riding in, but there were a more of them than there were our APCs. I blanched. Our soldiers were soon arrayed against the new threat, and I shouldered my rifle, ready to open fire.

As the wagons approached, and didn’t seem like they wanted to slow down, the force cannons opened fire. Whenever one of them impacted a wagon, it would utterly explode, along with the people on it, creating a small rain of stained red wood chips. I watched the localized showers of splinters as they got into firing range for me, and I targeted the drivers, taking out a couple. The ones I killed careened off to the sides, one of them hitting another of the wagons, breaking both of them, and sending the Tesser riding them flying at bone-snapping speed.

A grin crept its way onto my face until I realized why I was grinning, but the realization didn’t stop me shooting until they reached the lines of our soldiers, literally driving over anyone who didn’t get out of their way before disgorging the soldiers riding in the very large wagons.

Our battle lines ruined by the wagons driving straight through them, my guns quickly became useless unless I wanted to shoot someone on my side. Sighing, I took up sword and shield for some melee fighting. I did my best to go around to wherever needed help to pitch in, but whenever I did try to help, I’d only be distracting a single enemy soldier unless I burned large amounts of mana to completely overpower them. I’d noted this last time, but hadn’t really thought much about it, why were these soldiers so weak? I’d only enhanced my mana twice. Admittedly, it was with wyvern cores, but I was still overpowering the fighters without mana, and with mana I could rampage through them, my swings crushing their attempted defenses.

They were more skilled than me, but that didn’t matter when I was stronger, had better weaponry, and had reflexes that seemed significantly better than before I’d enhanced my mana. Throughout the fighting, I tried to hide the part of my mind that kept breaking, but whenever I did I almost started to feel… satisfied. It just felt right to best them in combat. Scared of that thought, I began to focus on the part of me breaking, which felt significantly worse, but helped me stay me.

I fought on, and was running pretty low on mana, when I noted one particular enemy soldier easily cutting through the Kyren soldiers. Deciding to take him out, I pulled out my revolver, let out my breath, and pulled the trigger. I knew the bullet was accurate, but gaped as it hit not him, but what had to be a forcefield around him. I’d known there were large scale forcefields, but this was my first time dealing with a personal one.

The man apparently noticed my shot, and turned to me, breaking off from the fighting with the group to take me out. I panicked a bit, but held my ground as he approached, raising my shield to block his sword as it came whistling downwards. The impact on my shield rang with the clarity of a bell, his sword bouncing off the hardened wyvern scale coating on my shield. Unfortunately, the arm under my shield wasn’t as lucky, feeling like one big bruise from a single swing.

I would have gulped, but I didn’t have the time as he swung again. I started pouring what was left of my mana into my body enhancement magic, and blocked the swing with much more comfort this time, though I still winced from it. Swinging back at him, he casually knocked my blow off course with his shield. I was terribly outmatched. I managed to block another two of his attacks, but each time I felt the bones in my arms grate together. Each swing of his, I was forced back a step or three. I was beginning to think I was just going to die when Alya came to my rescue.

She started the fight with a casual swing that I was certain held more force than anything I could produce. Her swing caused the man with the forcefield to grunt, his easy expression fading into a serious one. I should have gone back to fighting with the other soldiers, but I simply watched entranced as they began to exchange blows. The two of them moved almost faster than my improved eyes could track, causing afterimages to appear. I frowned, he had simply been toying with me.

The dance continued for a while, swords flickering up and down, trying to dance around the shields that always seemed to be in the way, until finally Alya’s blade managed to sneak under the shield, cutting deep into the man’s leg. He let out a shout of pain, and tried to overpower Alya for a bit, but was quickly knocked back as Alya retaliated with just as much power.

She then started to dance around him, forcing him to move his wounded leg as she constantly feinted with her sword, getting him to move his shield constantly. She was planning on bleeding him out. He seemed to realize what was happening only too late, as he shouted, and barreled forwards, trying to tackle Alya. She simply sidestepped him, his cut leg slowing him down, and cut at his other leg as he passed by, sending him tumbling.

He struggled to rise as Alya slowly approached him, said “For Dmiyo” in the most harsh voice I’d heard from her, and stabbed her sword into the back of his neck. The man reached up to grab the slick blade sticking out from his adam’s apple. Alya ripped the sword out as I watched, flicked the blood off, then went back to fighting. I shuddered, I never wanted to get on her bad side.

I got back to fighting, my stamina having replenished a bit during my short break to watch Alya’s dominating performance. After a bit, I noticed that Iosyo and Lilya had joined me in going from group to group, helping anywhere we could in the chaotic melee. With the Tesser having been dropped off in the middle of our lines, there were enemies in every direction, and occasionally the three of us would get pinned down, only to get rescued in turn by someone else. The most frequent of our rescuers was Alya, making me wonder how she managed to fight and keep tabs on us at the same time.

The battle was slowly starting to wind down, and I finally started to relax. I continued going from group to group to help, but everywhere I looked, Tesser soldier were surrendering, throwing down their weapons, and so I ended up lowering my own. I frowned at the condition my sword was in after just two battles, it wasn’t cutting as well, and chips were showing throughout it. Just as we started to celebrate I saw something. I casually looked towards it, and blanched. From the same direction the previous group had come, another dust cloud was forming, and soon I could see more of the wagons carrying Tesser soldiers. There were only as many as last time, but our numbers had already been cut down significantly. We were also worn from the previous fights. As I stared, Alya came by, grabbed the three of us, and started to drag us along. She dropped us off at the edge of the battleground, then stood in front of us protectively. The Tesser soon arrived, and battle was joined once more, but this time, we were outnumbered. I continued to fight, staying on the edge of the battlefield that Alya repeatedly herded us to. Soon the battle was clearly turning against us.

Everywhere I looked, our soldiers had started to surrender. I wasn’t certain what to do, then Alya came to us, grabbed us, said a word I didn’t recognize, and started dragging us out of the battlefield, towards a forest barely visible at the edge of the horizon. I protested, but fell silent as she glared at me, making me wonder what stupid idea prompted me to oppose her. Turning away from the woman whose glare somehow reminded me of my mother, I ended up running towards the tree line in a bid to not end up a slave or dead.

Some soldiers soon noticed us however, and took chase. The first to try and send streams of fire I answered with my revolver. I turned back just long enough to get some shots off, two of them hitting my targets. With the soldiers forced to hide behind their shields as they tried to chase us, we soon started leaving them behind. I was starting to think we’d get away cleanly, when I looked back to see one of their wagons fully loaded with soldiers, and driving after us. I skidded to a stop, dragging my rifle from behind my back over to my shoulder, and shot the driver. My grin didn’t last long however, as someone else took the controls and continued driving towards us. I shot him, then realized that this was a losing proposition, more of the wagons were being loaded up to chase after us and the rest of the people who were scattering to avoid becoming slaves.

I tightened the strap on my rifle, attaching it to my back once more, and got back to running, fumbling with my revolver to reload it as I ran. After far too many attempts, I got the bullets in the chambers, and closed the cylinder. The wagon I’d shot at soon overtook us, stopping in front of us as soldiers started to hop out of it. We largely ignored them, and Alya beheaded one as she passed, making me think of a bottle of champagne with the cork popped out. I fired the six shots in my revolver, taking the soldiers by surprise as they were unloading. Four of the six I shot dropped, while the other two started to scream in pain as we ran past them. Lilya and Iosyo chopped through the two who tried to blockade us in an instant.

We soon left the wagon behind again, sprinting faster than even peak human athletes before the world changed. I managed to reload again as we went, somehow not tripping. We made it to the forest at almost exactly the same time as another one of the wagons reached us. The soldiers were disembarking much more quickly than the previous group, and I attempted to send the six new bullets in my revolver at them. This time, things were different. Two of them managed to have their shields raised, and one of them hit another personal forcefield, leaving only three of them incapacitated or dead. Holstering my revolver, I drew my sword, having to slow down this time as Alya repeated her act of beheading one of the soldiers.

I met the first soldier with as much power as I could, slamming my sword into him with all the strength of my body enhancement magic. The man yelled in pain, but kept his shield held up, even as I ripped my sword from the horrifically dented object. His answering slice was much faster than the normal soldier’s I had faced, and I barely got my shield up in time to block. I grimaced, and repeated my powerful blow, but again, he put up with the pain, keeping his shield where it should be even as I dented the top of it in a good few inches. The fight turned into a game of stamina, would I run out of mana first? Or would he run out of strength in his shield arm first?

The answer was neither. The thing to give out was his entire shield, as I eventually cleaved off a good third of it, leaving him unable to block the follow up lunge. Breathing deeply, I looked to my group to see them having as much trouble as I had, except they were each facing two of the soldiers. Feeling inadequate, I went to help Lilya first, simply reloading my revolver into one of the soldiers from the side. The other soldier instantly turned to me, shield leveled, only to have his arm severed by Lilya, and we soon cleaned up the rest of the group just as Alya finished off the man who had the personal forcefield.

Our flight was about to continue when yet another wagon stopped directly in front of us. Looking back, I saw another three coming up, and I turned pale. Alya, noticing the same thing, grabbed Lilya, barked something at her, gave her something, then put her forehead to Lilyas, then did the same to Iosyo in a very motherlike gesture. The soldiers disembarking let us do so, then raised their weapons as Alya turned to face them. Lilya grabbed my hand as Alya charged into the formation, using her ridiculous strength to bowl over the entire group as Lilya dragged me along past Alya and into the forest. I looked back, only now realizing what was happening as Alya dove at the other wagons, killing one driver, then grabbing the steering handles to crash into the other wagons.

Some of their soldiers leveled their flame wands at me, but I responded with my revolver, and the Tesser were soon tucked behind their shields. Lilya was soon dragging me away from the battle. I tried to hold back, but she yanked me alone, her superior strength making trying to stay a losing proposition. As I was dragged along, Alya raised hell for Iosyo, Lilya, and I to get away. While we ran, I felt a slight sprinkle of water on my face, turning forwards to see Lilya still facing away from me. I continued to follow her, in denial that we were losing yet another of our group. Alya would be able to get away. She was easily the toughest in our group, the soldiers wouldn’t be able to tie her down. The thoughts like that were what I focused on, doing my best to believe them.

The sun soon fell down, and we didn’t dare make a campfire, not even setting up camp, just sleeping on the hard ground, with the sky above us. I felt that was what I deserved. I hadn’t been able to help Alya. I hadn’t been able to help Dmiyo. I couldn’t even find the words to comfort Lilya or Iosyo. I curled up, I needed to become stronger.

The days passed in utter silence for quite some time, none of us willing to talk, spending all of our time in silence attempting to escape. When I finally get up the nerve to break the silence for something other than necessity, it fell flat, neither Iosyo nor Lilya willing to help me learn some more of the language, and I wasn’t going to press.

We traveled for quite some time until we managed to hit a road, but it didn’t seem to raise the spirits of any of us. We followed the road, eventually hitting a large town. We went to rest in an inn, and I finally had some free time to read, trying to distract myself. As I tried to go to bed, I focused on one thing, I had simply been too weak to help. Even if I’d been the one to stay behind, I wouldn’t have been able to stall the soldiers like Alya had. I was simply useless.