“This kid is useless. Can we send him back?” [???]

Ryner was a seven years old boy. He was malnourished and had injuries all over him.

“The orphanage won’t give us a refund for our money. It’ll be better to keep him. He’ll get better at doing chores as he grows older.” [???]

He was alone in a dark basement, eating a piece of bread. Besides the wooden floor and stone walls, there wasn’t any furniture as he sat on the ground with his knees folded to his chest.

“You just want him as a punching bag. He’s covered in bruises from every time you come home from work all frustrated because of your boss.” [???]

There was a staircase on the side of the wall. He could hear voices coming from behind the door at the top.

“But honey, don’t you always stab him with a needle every time he breaks a plate? His body’s probably a beehive by now.” [???]

It was a man’s and a woman’s voice. They were talking about the boy that they bought from an orphanage. They thought that he would be useful around the house, but the kid was clumsy and slow, causing more trouble than he was helping.

“I can’t help it, he just doesn’t learn. Oh well, let’s keep him for now. He is pretty sturdy and makes for good stress relief.” [???]

He silently ate his meal while listening to their voices. Although he tried hard every day, he could never please those two. Being an orphan all his life, he really wanted to make them happy. After all…

“Actually, I have an idea. Why don’t we use him to get some of our money back? I know this coworker who’s secretly into brats like him.” [???]

They were the parents he always yearned for.

“You really should have just killed them.” [Alice]

With that disgusted voice that seemed to come from everywhere, Ryner’s surroundings became pitch black and he went back to being 20 years old.

“Why are you back again? Do you really have enough power to waste on this?” [Ryner]

He asked Alice while standing up and looking around him.

“I’m here to offer you the deal I spoke about the last time.” [Alice]

“Is that so? Then what is it?” [Ryner]

He spoke with a serious expression, urging her to get to the point.

“It’s quite simple. You’re trying hard to get back the life force you spent, but you keep using it. So, why don’t we make it a small game between us?” [Alice]

“A game?” [Ryner]

“Yes, you win if you never use your powers for a year and I win if you do before then. Of course, I’ll let you use your pocket dimension that you’re so fond of.” [Alice]

She spoke to him in a playful tone, as if she really was suggesting a fun little game to pass the time. But, Ryner knew that the penalty for losing was nothing to laugh at.

“What happens if I win?” [Ryner]

“For ten whole years, I won’t consume any life force.” [Alice]

He paused for a second to think. What would she ask of him if she won? Would she desire some of the life force that he gathered?

“… Then, what happens if I lose?” [Ryner]

“You will give me your arm, your leg and your eyes.” [Alice]

Hearing her answer, he held his right arm and instantly knew what she was after.

“You plan on creating a War Puppet modeled after me.” [Ryner]

“That’s correct, but it’s not really surprising, is it? Now, I promise that I will agree to the terms of this game. Do you accept?” [Alice]

She asked him in an arrogant tone, confident in her victory. He considered the gain and loss a bit before giving his answer. If all went well, then Alice won’t be able to recover her strength for a while, giving him an advantage over her. Moreover, not using any life force was what he wanted to do from the start, so there’s no problem with playing this game. Although there’s the risk that he would lose and have to fight his War Puppet, he figured that it was worth it.

“I accept and promise that I will agree to the terms of this game.” [Ryner]

“Perfect, then, let the game begin.” [Alice]

The moment she finished talking, he woke up in the forest with tears in his eyes. From now on, he would need to be extra careful whenever he got into a fight. A few days had passed since he and Maya left the village and they had stopped by the road to sleep. Ryner rubbed away the tears and started making his way back to the campsite where Maya was forced to stay at after he ordered her to since it looked like she would secretly follow him. Once he reached the place, he saw her carrying the saddle and walking towards the horse that was eating some grass. She noticed his arrival and greeted him with a smile.

“Good morning, Master. Did you sleep well?” [Maya]

“Morning. I had a good sleep.” [Ryner]

“Is that so? But, it would have been better if I was there.” [Maya]

She playfully talked to him while putting the saddle on their steed.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you would’ve sung a great lullaby.” [Ryner]

“If that’s what you want. But, I was thinking of something different…” [Maya]

Ignoring her, Ryner helped her out and they continued their journey with Maya at the reins. Her master was sitting behind her while thinking about the game that he agreed to play with Alice. To ensure that he won, he’ll need to use his entire arsenal, whether it’d be blades or bullets. As such, he’ll also need to find a quiet spot to repair some of his bigger weaponry that broke down and that he never got around to fixing. He then looked at his student. Right now, she may be one of his greatest assets, so it’ll be better to give her a weapon to deal with future troubles. But, he still wasn’t sure if that was such a good idea. Alice was right after all, he didn’t fully trust her.

“Come to think of it, Master, what is the name of the city that we’re going to?” [Maya]

Her question broke his train of thought and he recalled what he read from the book that Trish gave him more than a month ago.

“Let’s see, the capital is called Elura. If the info I got is right, then we should be there in a few more hours.” [Ryner]

“I don’t know much about the world because of my training, so I’m a bit excited to see what it is like.” [Maya]

“Well you’re in luck kid. That’s one of the few human capitals that other races can visit. Just don’t cause any trouble, or they’ll kick us out.” [Ryner]

She pouted a bit when she heard his warning.

“Geez, of course I won’t. I want to see what kind of alcohol they sell there.” [Maya]

“That’s what you’re interested in? You’ve already become a full-fledged drinker, huh?” [Ryner]

Two hours later, as they were traveling while exchanging some words, the two of them tensed up and Maya stopped the horse. They got off and looked around them while being on high alert. They were in the middle of a beaten road with forests on both sides.

“Well that sucks, we’re surrounded already.” [Ryner]

He spoke with a laidback tone of voice while pulling out from his pocket dimension a pure white sword with a guard that looked like wings and a blue gem embedded in it. Maya cracked her knuckles and took a fighting stance. Shadows in the forest were moving around them at high speed. The horse, sensing the danger, neighed loudly and raised its forelegs, looking as if it were ready to bolt out of there any second.

“Calm down horse. You’ll be safer with us than if you escaped alone.” [Ryner]

Without looking back, Ryner spoke to it to calm it down. It didn’t seem to have any effect as it kept neighing, but he did get an amused response from Maya.

“Master, I don’t think he understood you.” [Maya]

“Well, sorry about that. I’ll brush up on my horse talk after we get out of here.” [Ryner]

At that moment, some of the shadows left the trees and approached them while growling. They were black wolves with dark brown shells like an insect’s on their back, head and limbs. The armor that covered their forehead had a single horn protruding from it. They slowly approached their preys while showing their fangs with drool at the corner of their mouths. Their claws dug into the ground and their red eyes were filled with killing intent. There were eight of them, four on each side of the road, surrounding the three. Maya knocked her knuckles together and Ryner took a step forward while ignoring the horse that was going crazy from fear because it couldn’t escape.

“We take four each. Don’t let them get near the horse.” [Ryner]

The moment he finished speaking, all eight of the wolves rushed at them while barring their fangs. Taking aim, he swung his weapon horizontally, instantly cutting all four charging enemies in one stroke with a shining blade of light that extended from his sword. Cut in half, they fell dead before they even knew what hit them.

“Four down. What about you?” [Ryner]

He turned around to see Maya using her hand to chop a wolf in two from his back, crushing his shell, flesh and bones. Three more bodies were on the ground around her, bloody and mangled up. Before she could answer him, the horse, not being able to take it anymore, ran away at full speed.

“Hey! Horse, get back here! Crap!” [Ryner]

More wolves came out of the forest as a group surrounded them while another chased after the fleeing prey. Ignoring the ones that were coming closer towards him, with his right hand, Ryner swung his sword downwards and a fifteen meter long blade of light slashed three wolves that were chasing the horse on its right side as well as made a deep mark on the ground. Then, putting his hand inside a blue circle made of rings that appeared by his left thigh, he pulled out another weapon: a silver revolver. It was a six shooter that was slightly bigger than a 500 magnum and had a thick, rectangular barrel.

He shot down the six other wolves that were on the left side of the horse which allowed it to escape. The recoil was big, but he accurately took them out in quick succession. Unfortunately, this meant that all of the beasts were now focused on them. Sure enough, five of them got close while he was protecting the horse and were about to rip him to pieces. But, Maya appeared in front of him as she landed on the head of one wolf which crushed it to a bloody mess and grabbed two other by the throat. The remaining two changed their target to her and bit down on her arms, but they couldn’t pierce her skin at all. She broke the neck of the two that she was holding and tossed the ones biting down on her at the wolves who were keeping their distances. Since she left her initial position, the ones that were aiming for her now jumped at Ryner’s defenseless back. Just as she was about to rush there to protect him, her master lifted his holy sword and a wall of light appeared in front of him, sending all the wolves flying backwards.

“Get down!” [Ryner]

Maya crouched low and Ryner spun around as he swung his sword, cutting down everything in a fifty meter radius with a flash of light. The earth rumbled as trees fell one after another, leaving behind a circled-shaped area with none of them standing. There were dozens of corpses of wolves that were cleanly cut in two and others that were crushed by the fallen trees all around them.

“You don’t need to worry about me, kid. I can protect myself, unless I’m, you know… dying.” [Ryner]

He said as he stored his gun away and raised his sword to fight once again. Even after that attack, more beasts came pouring out from the untouched forest, snarling and growling at them.

“Mmhh, should I just cut down everything? But I’m against deforestation.” [Ryner]

“Are you having trouble, Master? Then again, there are a lot of them.” [Maya]

The two stood back to back and casually talked to each other while keeping track of the canines’ movements who were being careful after that showy move. They warily watched these two supposed preys while keeping their distance.

“Not really, these guys aren’t that tough. It doesn’t matter how many there are, we’ll still win. This is like pest extermination, or bandit hunting.” [Ryner]

His remark made her chuckle as she kept her fists raised, ready for when the wolves renewed their attack. Without dropping her guard, she asked him about the weapon that he used to protect the horse. Although he showed it to her before, this was the first time that she saw him fire it and she was impressed at how powerful it was.

“But that just now, was that what you called a “gun”? It was quite effective… and loud.” [Maya]

She jokingly said the last part as her ears were ringing when he shot down those six wolves. Feeling playful from her words, he quickly put away his sword and pulled out a large, black assault rifle from his pocket dimension. It had a large barrel and the underside looked like that of a shotgun.

“If you liked that, then you’re going to love this.” [Ryner]

While grinning, he pulled the fore-end all the way to the back and the underside of the barrel started to split into many plates. They moved to the sides and revealed the blade of a chainsaw hidden underneath. Maya looked at it from the corner of her eye with a bit of surprise.

“Is that also a gun?” [Maya]

“Yup. This one was based off a game. It’s pretty good once you get used to it.” [Ryner]

He aimed at the wolves that were being cautious and pulled the trigger.

A group of fifty people riding on horses were rapidly approaching where Ryner and Maya were currently fighting at. According to numerous reports, there have been sightings of packs of horned wolves all moving towards the capital city. They had fast and powerful limbs as well as shells that could stop swords and arrows. Also, because they attacked in packs that usually contained six to seven of them, people would often be surrounded and ripped to shreds by their sharp fangs. C rank warriors and above could handle them, but if the reports were true, then Elura could soon come under attack by more than three hundred horned wolves. To prevent this crisis, the king sent this group to stop and investigate the strange behavior of these beasts.

These riders were the knights and the summoned heroes. While the adult men and women had full plated armor, the young high schoolers who were all classmates wore easy to move in clothes. Although many had pieces of armor such as breastplates and vambraces, they preferred to travel light since their bodies could become harder than steel at will. However, one of them wore a complete set and it was different from the knights that were steel colored. This one was shining white with golden linings running all over it and draped over the shoulders was a red cape that had golden embroidery of a sword with wings behind it. The high schooler donning it had short blond hair, blue eyes and a handsome face. He was the strongest of the heroes and their leader, Ryan Wayer.

“We should be getting close! Are you all ready?!” [???]

An old man in knight armor who was riding beside Ryan shouted out with a serious expression. He was the Elea kingdom’s knight commander, Cain Orkus. Short white hair, a beard, dark brown eyes and wrinkles on his face, everything showed that he would soon retire from his position, but the powerful aura he gave off told otherwise.

“Cain, are you sure this is the right way?” [Ryan]

“From what we gathered, the packs will be converging near the main road in the forested area. We’ll intercept them there” [Cain]

He then looked at the boy who was much more powerful than him and who he’d been training along with the other heroes.

“We’ll probably be taking on three hundred horned wolves. This is the largest number you guys ever had to deal with. How are you feeling?” [Cain]

No matter what, he couldn’t lose the heroes, but they also had to show their strength to the world. Although they were all gifted with huge mana pools and special abilities, they are still rookies who only began training for a few months so he couldn’t help but feel worried.

“What’s there to worry about? We won’t lose no matter how many there are. We’re heroes after all.” [Ryan]

Ryan responded with a confident attitude while grinning at the knight commander. He possessed great strength in this world and with the holy sword that the royal family gave him, there was no way he would lose to some horned wolves. At that moment, a lone horse came running towards them, visibly in fright. Seeing the saddle but no rider, they understood that someone was attacked, so they stopped talking and focused on getting there even a second sooner. The closer they got, the better they could hear the sounds of battle which caused the knights to tense up. However, the heroes all wore surprised expressions because they could recognize the repeated explosive sounds. It was something that shouldn’t be in this world.

“Hey, Ryan, isn’t that…?” [???]

A young man with dark skin, black hair in braids and dark brown eyes asked him. It was a fellow hero, a classmate and his best friend, Jayce Alleyne. Being nearly a head taller than Ryan and a having a well-built body, he was often the brawns of their little group and fought on the frontlines alongside him. He wore brown pants, a sleeveless grey shirt that showed his strong arms and steel gauntlets. As he asked with shock in his voice, the other heroes also started chattering among themselves, making the knights who didn’t know what they were talking about quite puzzled by their reactions.

“What’s the matter, Jayce? Why are you all surprised by explosive fire spells? Although from the sound of it, the caster has a ridiculously huge mana pool as well, but…” [Cain]

“It’s not. Cain, this isn’t magic.” [Ryan]

Ryan answered him with a serious expression, thinking about what it could mean to find someone wielding this weapon.

“What, it’s not?” [Cain]

The old knight looked even more confused at his response before the young hero spoke to him while looking forward.

“I can’t confirm it, but it’s a weapon from our world... It’s a gun.” [Ryan]

Before Cain could ask him what that was, the large noises told them that they were near the battle as the smell of blood drifted to their nose. Pulling out their weapons and getting ready to assist whoever was fighting, what they saw ahead of them made their jaw drop. Many trees were cut down, countless corpses of horned wolves littered the ground and blood dyed the earth red. In that carnage stood a male human and a female beastman. The woman had fair skin, dark blue hair braided behind her back and eyes a shade darker. She wore black shorts and a wine red sleeveless shirt that showed off her hourglass-shaped figure. Around her neck was also a thick, black collar that denoted her status as a slave. With light brown animal ears and tail that were black at the edges and tip, she was a beautiful beastman that anyone would fall for. However, she was covered in blood and ripping the horned wolves to pieces with her bare hands which gave her a sinister look.

The man fighting by her side wore a white shirt and dark brown pants. Compared to her, he was quite unassuming since he had short black hair, a plain face, pale skin and a skinny-looking body. But, there were two things that stood out the most. The first was his right eye that was white instead of dark brown like his left. The second, which was what especially caught the attention of the group, was the foreign object he held in his hands: a black, large assault rifle with a chainsaw under the barrel. Whenever he pulled the trigger, a hail of bullets would rain down on the beasts which turned them into bloody beehives, piercing both flesh and shells. Needing to reload, he crouched down and the woman fought while moving around him, swinging a wolf by its tail in both hands and knocking away anything that got near him. He removed the magazine, put it inside a blue circle of light that suddenly appeared next to him, pulled out another one before placing it in the gun and cocked the bolt back.

He got up and started shooting again with deadly accuracy. As the two kept ripping the savage beasts to pieces, one of them got near the man and jumped at his throat. He quickly knocked it back with the butt of his rifle and flipped a switched on the side. With a loud buzzing noise, the blades of the chainsaw started rotating at high speed and he brought it down on the wolf that tried to attack him again. Blood sprayed everywhere as the chainsaw cut into its shoulder, going deeper and deeper until with one swift motion, the man cut its head off along with its forelimb. When the group of knights and heroes got within ten meters, the fight was over as the surviving horned wolves turned around and escaped into the forest, leaving behind a bloody field filled with the corpses of their comrades. The two responsible for this bloodbath turned around to look at the new arrivals. The woman observed them warily while the man frowned and quickly put his rifle inside a blue circle of light before staring at them again.

Once they were a few feet away, they stopped their horses and Ryan got off along with Cain. The strongest hero and the knight commander walked up to the man and woman while staying alert. Standing face-to-face, the two parties stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before the gun wielder spoke first while tilting his head.

“Is this kid the prince charming?” [Ryner]